Nature of Rainbows
by CompYES
Summary: AU Tenni Stronghold. Will Stronghold's sister, and all-together unremarkable teenager. At least, that's what she wishes her life was like.
1. Prologue: A New Beginning

**The Nature of a Rainbow**

Re-Write from_ Past Upon Lies and Illusions_

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**Summary:** AU Tenni Stronghold. Will Stronghold's sister, and all-together unremarkable teenager. At least, that's what she wishes her life were like.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Sky High. Saddest truth of my life. But Tenni is mine.

**Pairings:** Warren/OC, Lash/OC (one-sided), Will/Layla, Zach/Magenta, Steve/Josie

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**Prologue: Beginning Anew**

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The sun beat down upon her so hot. Her body slicked with sweat all over, she felt grimy in the most unpleasant places possible. Walking was leisurely moving from one place to another at a comfortable pace in comfortable conditions. This wasn't walking. This was torture, plain and simple. In the hot sun, with no water, laden with a single, heavily loaded bag, and wearing layer upon layer of clothing she couldn't fit into the bag. It was no wonder she was fairing poorly. The only one she could truly blame for her miserable state was herself. There were plenty of things she could've done to avoid going it on her own.

It had all started with her parents' untimely demise. Normally, kids were supposed to be devastated by the deaths of their beloved parents. The girl, Tenni Sieve, probably would've been really upset if she actually cared for her _beloved _parents. There was a time when things were actually good and she remembered being happy around them. It was amazing what seven years of inner family cold war could do to family ties. As it turned out, her father and mother had come from opposite ends of the super being spectrum. Her father was a hero, her mother a villain. They'd married each other not knowing the other's loyalties. When the truth surfaced, the relationship, the family unit, disintegrated. Sure, they tried for her in the beginning, but soon, they just stopped caring. There was only good and evil, black and white, and sooner or later, they had to end one another.

After sitting on the sidelines for so long watching them needle each other with hateful things both super related and not, she was surprise they hadn't killed each other sooner.

That was, of course, what happened. They killed each other. She was orphaned because her stupid parents were stupid enough to get each other stupidly killed. There was no concern over who would go home to their daughter at the end of the battle. Of all the things that had hurt most, being called a mistake was what really did it for her. The first time it happened, she was willing to live in denial. Seven years old, she didn't want to believe that the parents she loved thought she was a mistake. Mistakes were broken vases or doing a math problem wrong. When she heard the statement reused by both of her parents, she finally had to accept the fact that they were too far-gone to care about her anymore. The last couple of years, she'd lived under the same roof, but stayed away from them. In a way, they'd died a long time ago for her.

Most of her upbringing had been left to the caretakers hired to look after her. She supposed that appearances had to be kept up. Didn't want to be accused of neglect and abuse when someone found out your daughter was illiterate and poorly fed. Home schooled and kept away from the outside, all she really knew about the world was what she saw on the TV and what Rhonda, her tutor, told her about. There was a lot out there she missed out on while alone, stuck in her prison house with its two indifferent wardens.

After their death, Tenni had tried to get Rhonda to adopt her. Rhonda had unfortunately not been able to. Her life had also been upset by the death of the Sieves. She no longer had work and Tenni couldn't compensate Rhonda because the government had seized her parents' assets. With the loss of her source of income, she couldn't afford to take in the orphaned preteen. Tenni had been really upset by that, but knew there was nothing she could do to change it. She was refused the right to get herself emancipated because the government's further interference. They'd deemed her unfit to live on her own after the tragedy. She wasn't naïve enough to just believe this excuse. The real reason was that she was a risk. Her mother was evil. They were concerned that the apple didn't fall very far from the tree.

She, Tenni Sieve, was a potential threat.

Of course, they couldn't completely write her off or take custody of her themselves. She was still a minor and had relatives somewhere out there in the world. Apparently, these so called relatives had fought for the right to adopt her into their family. The convenience of the whole arrangement made Tenni suspicious. She couldn't easily believe, after being rejected by so many people, that there were people out there who genuinely wanted her to come live with them. Not only that, she didn't know how she felt about having to go live with people other than the ones she'd grown up with. Rhonda was her first choice because she was nice to her and the closest thing she'd ever had to someone treating her like a human being.

Unfortunately, today was the day she'd been told to meet her new family. Of course, she'd had the option of asking Rhonda for a ride to the address she'd been provided. She'd refused to do so partially because she didn't want to be an inconvenience, and partially because she really was irrationally mad at Rhonda for not being able to adopt her. If she were forced to be around the woman, she'd probably say something she'd regret and ruin the only relationship she had. So she decided to try and assert some independence (she felt it was as good a time as any to practice) and tried to take a bus to Maxville.

All had gone well until she'd gotten to the Maxville station. She didn't have enough money to get on the next bus to take her to the stop near where her relatives lived. With Herculean effort, Tenni had had to force herself to speak to one of the strangers waiting for the bus if they could tell her how to get there on foot. The person luckily knew where she meant and gave her the right directions. Before leaving the station, she made sure she committed them perfectly to memory before heading off the way she'd been told to go. Only a couple of blocks in, she had already felt exhausted and was only a quarter of the way there. Her feet, her back, her arms, all killing her. All of the clothing she was wearing was soiled by the sweat and dirt that had been blown into her by light gusts of wind. If someone were to see her on the street, they'd probably think her some sort of homeless beggar or runaway. This really wasn't the impression she needed to be giving to her relatives when they were _graciously_ taking her in.

Her eyes began to sting and water as the sweat started leaking into her eyes. Tenni was ready to cry for real, she was just getting so tired of being tired and filthy and feeling sorry for herself. That was why when she was done rubbing her eyes dry, she was overcome by such joy and relief at the sight of the street sign half a block down reading the name of the street the house was on. Her exhaustion near forgotten in the excitement, she bolted forward rounded the corner, making a right. The sight of perfectly uniform white houses was what she was met with. Lawns were trimmed and there weren't any brown patches anywhere. Some of them had sprinklers running, and she felt the tempted to run through them but fought it down reminding herself now wasn't the time to goof around.

She did, however, use her power to pull a bit of the water into her hand to splash her face with so it didn't look so dirty.

Sooner than she'd expected, she found herself in front of the house with the address that matched what was written on the little scrap of paper in her hand. All previous concerns were wiped away as she stared at the door in front of her with great trepidation. She was still unsure about this whole relative business. Deep down, she really wanted this family to like her and want her like her other hadn't. She wanted it so bad with all of her heart. But even more than that, she was afraid of being hurt by their reaction if it turned out they didn't like her. Would they judge her based on the crimes of her mother? Would they be resentful of her coming into their home and disrupting their life?

Knowing she had no choice, she swallowed down her fear and reached forward with a shaky hand to ring the doorbell. It made a light, pleasant sound, though it was muffled from where she stood on the other side. Her anxiety peaked when there was immediate response to the sound within the house. Footsteps thundered towards the front door before it was thrown wide open revealing a brunet boy her age standing opposite her in the doorway. He stared back at her a little dumbstruck.

So this was the son, her cousin. They'd told her that her relative was the sister of her mother. Apparently, she was also an international superhero who was married to a hero as well. For a second, Tenni couldn't help but laugh at the joke that was her mother's life. With a hero sister and a hero husband, all of that good in her life, how had she turned out so bad? It was just one of those mysteries, Tenni guessed. Big god damn mystery.

"Um, hi?" the boy finally said.

"Hi," Tenni unsurely echoed.

"Are you okay?"

"Why?" she asked back, defensively.

"Well," he stuttered back a little nervously, "You just seem, I don't know, kind of sad. Like you need a hug."

That struck her a little speechless. She really didn't know how to feel about the comment.

"So um, why is it you're here?"

"I'm here to see Josie Stronghold."

"Oh. Okay. Mom!" he called into the house, "There's someone here to see you!" He returned his attention to her, "So what's your name? How come you need to see my mom?"

Her answer was interrupted when a gorgeous auburn-haired woman stepped into view. Tenni was struck by deja vu. The coloring was all wrong, but the woman was the just about the spitting image of her own mother. It was eerie. The minute she made eye contact with her, Tenni's eyes shot back down to her feet uncomfortably.

"Tennille?" she heard the woman whisper with a hint of wonder.

"It's Tenni," she corrected a little petulantly, but with no real bite, "It's nice to finally meet you Aunt Josie."

The boy jerked in surprise.

"Oh sweetie, I'm so sorry for your loss," the woman said, tears starting to spill out of the corners of her eyes. She stepped forward and pulled Tenni into a hug. The girl simply patted her aunt on the back soothingly.

"It's alright Aunt Josie. You lost something too."

Her aunt seemed to cry even harder that. They stood there for a while, the woman crying into her shoulder as she awkward stood there consoling her. Her cousin kept on sneaking peeks at her, trying to figure out this new cousin that had come out of nowhere. Eventually, Aunt Josie had to let go of her, sniffing and snuffling a little and she lead the girl into her home. On their way in, she was formally introduced to Will Stronghold as his cousin and also her uncle, Aunt Josie's husband Steven Stronghold. Aunt Josie gave the two a run down of Tenni's situation. She watched as their expressions changed from confused to compassionate and sympathetic. The adults decided to have a private discussion and so Will pulled her and her bag along to give her a tour of the house.

The rest of the say seemed to fly by at an alarming rate. Tenni was beginning to become overwhelmed by everything going on in the Stronghold home. Aunt Josie put on a strong front for her even though she looked like she was barely containing her own grief. Uncle Steve was trying, not very smoothly, to keep everything light and humorous for not only her sake but for Aunt Josie's as well. The only person who she could really stand to be around was her cousin Will. He intrigued her because he was the first person she had ever met who was her age. All her life, the only people she'd ever known were adults. It was refreshing being around someone who wasn't an authority figure. He actually seemed interested in getting to know her and had such interesting things to tell her about or show her. It made her feel like an actual twelve year-old for once.

When night came, he told her she could have his bed. She protested at first, she didn't feel right taking it, but he told her the guest room wasn't ready for her yet and that he'd be fine taking the fold out bed in his couch. They spent the whole night wide-awake, Will just talking and talking about school, and about his best friend Layla. He'd even called out from his window and a redheaded girl with short pig tails appeared in the window across the way. Will excitedly introduced her as the best friend, and she got so excited by the news that Tenni was a relative of Will's she babbled incoherently for a couple of minutes about how awesome it was, her pigtails bouncing with every exclamation.

By the time they felt sleep creeping in on them, the sun looked like it was rising.

"I guess it's time to really go to bed," Will said, with some chagrin.

Tenni fought a yawn.

"Will?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you tell me about Sky High one more time?"

So he did. She fell asleep, cuddled in his ridiculously patriotic themed pillows and comforter, to the sound of his voice telling her all about the school in the sky. At Sky High, the both of them and Layla would all become superheroes. It was a nice thought, a place where she could be normal, maybe even something extraordinary. Something more than a mistake like her parents thought she was. She imagined Will and Layla being great heroes and she at their side, as part of their family.

It was really nice.

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**Prologue: Beginning Anew** – End

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AN: This rewrite is prompted by the fact that I started writing _Past Upon Lies and Illusions_ almost five years ago. I was really immature and didn't really know what I was doing. My writing style and tastes have changed over time, and looking back on the fic, I know I can write better. So this is my challenge to myself. The plot will follow _PULaI_ with some changes, nothing too big. Thank you anyone who still has faith in this story and me after all the crap and waiting I put you guys through.

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Next Installment

Chapter One: Up in the Air


	2. Chapter One: Up in the Air

**The Nature of a Rainbow**  
Re-Write from _Past Upon Lies and Illusions_

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**Chapter One: Up in the Air**

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"Welcome to you life,  
There's no turning back."  
- Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Tears for Fears

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The sound of a loud thump in the room adjacent to hers woke Tenni up from the deep, peaceful sleep she'd been experiencing. Silently levering herself up and out of bed, she went to the door and cracked it open a couple inches. She was greeted by the sight of her dad on the other side, hand up and poised to knock. Pulling it open the rest of the way, she greeted him as cheerfully as she could manage after just getting up.

"Morning kiddo," Steve said, fondly ruffling her hair.

With a half-hearted scowl, she waited for him to quit it.

"Sorry," he apologized, though the mirth in his eyes told her he really wasn't, "Just making sure you and your brother were really awake. Today's the big day you know."

"Yeah, you've harped on and on about it all summer long," Tenni muttered, "So I'm guessing the loud noise I heard earlier was Will's wake up call?"

"Oh, he's been up for a while now, trying to get some reps in before school. That kid, not even at Sky High yet and he's trying to get ahead of the game. He's a chip off the old block." He chuckled.

Tenni winced at the proud tone in his voice. He didn't know the truth yet. Thankfully, he didn't notice it and continued on down the hall to the staircase, reminding her to hurry up for breakfast. The minute he was out of sight, she clipped over to Will's room, ready to assess the damage. Her brother's bed was collapsed in the front left corner and there was a large looking plate from his weightlifting set on the ground near it. Looking to the weight set, she finally saw him sitting on it, hunched forward a little with his hand rubbing his chest. In a second, she was kneeling at his side.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah," he replied, looking into her eyes, "He caught me by surprise when he tossed it. Just got the air knocked out of me for the most part. The only thing really injured here is my bed."

He chuckled shallowly at his own joke. Tenni couldn't muster a smile or a laugh for him. Will's secret was killing him, emotionally and physically now too. Mom and Dad had fallen hook line and sinker for the show Will put on for them to convince them he had powers. The whole summer full of broken doorknobs and lifting weights was nothing more than loose screws and letting them think they were "accidentally" walking in on him finishing up lifting ridiculous amounts of weights. The plan had worked but the draw back was that Dad allowed himself to be careless with Will. Around Mom, her and Will, Dad had always been very careful not let his super strength slip. Will following in his footsteps with the strength and the invulnerability had seemed like a dream come true. Little did he know, every playful punch or thoughtless movement he made around Will had the potential of really hurting the boy.

How could she not be worried for him?

"Stop looking at me like that," Will said, guiltily looking away.

"You're getting hurt Will. This isn't fair to you."

"If they knew the truth," he whispered, "If Dad knew the truth, he'd be devastated. I can't do that Tenni. Not now."

"You can't keep it quiet for very much longer, Will. Sky High's going to force you to tell the truth."

"I've got to have some hope. I've got to at least believe that maybe if I hold on a little longer, maybe I'll develop a power and then it'll all be okay," he said, "Please just, don't say anything. Not until then."

Angrily, she pushed herself away from him. She hated when he begged her for something. No, that wasn't true. She hated it when he asked her for something she didn't want to give him. He knew she couldn't say no to him. Even when it was something like this and she knew deep down in her heart that she should speak up and put an end to it. Still, Tenni gave him a jerky nod to let him know that her lips would remain sealed. Turning on her heel, she went exit his room but was abruptly stopped by the hand placed on her wrist. Stubbornly, she refused to look at him as he stood and came closer.

"I know you don't like lying for me," he said to her, "But thank you anyway."

Arms circled her shoulders from behind, and she melted. Another thing she was terrible at when it came to Will. Staying angry at him. Inhaling deeply, she reveled in the feel of a hug from the person she cared most about in the whole world, committing it to memory like every other one she ever got from him. Then she shoved him off of her and shuffled back to her room as fast as her legs would carry her. Will of course, was not oblivious to the obvious delight she'd taken in the hug or the embarrassment she felt in indulging, and she could hear him laughing after from down the hall as she got ready for school.

The siblings managed to get dressed and have everything else done in a record amount of time to head down for breakfast. They caught the tail end of their mother recounting to Layla her memories of Layla and Will swimming in the kiddy pool naked together. Tenni snickered to herself as Will complained about it being embarrassing. Seeing his sister still laughing, he tossed a banana at her, which she just caught and proceeded to eat, smiling mockingly back at him.

"Morning Will, Tenni!" Layla called to the two.

"Morning Layla," Tenni said back, instantly joyous at the sight of the pretty redhead.

All talk was halted in the kitchen when the phone went off. Tenni and Will both laughed when Josie started complaining about not being able to see them off to the bus. At the beginning, Tenni had thought it so strange her new mother was so attached to trivial things like seeing them off to school on their first day of the year or always fussing over their lunches and what not. Not that she didn't appreciate it, it was certainly a change from what she'd known before. She'd been home schooled after all. It took a long talk with her mom to realize that Josie lived in constant fear that every day would be the last day she'd ever see her kids. In ways Tenni couldn't begin understand, her mom had been deeply affected by the death of her sister. Though they hadn't been close in a long time, Josie had loved her sister very much and regretted every day that the last time they'd seen each other, that the last thing she'd said to her sister that she was a disgrace to their family.

"Don't worry Mom," Tenni told the fretting woman, "We'll be fine. I promise I'll look out for Will so he doesn't get on the wrong bus or something."

"Hey!" Will yelled offended.

"Make sure you do, sweetheart. We'll be here at home waiting for you when you two get back," the redheaded woman promised, pulling away.

Steve stepped forward next, holding his arms out expectantly.

"Oh fine," Tenni said stepping forth wearing a mock "if I truly must" look.

"Thanks kid."

And then, after finishing their parting rituals with Will, they were out the door. Will hefted himself onto the counter top and clicked the TV on like he always did when they went out to go save the world from whatever. Tenni was a little hesitant about staying to watch the triumph on TV if it would make them late, but Will and Layla both assured her they'd make it on time. It was a satisfying match to watch as always. The Commander and Jetstream went in and flawlessly defeated the giant robot terrorizing Maxville. It was always nice watching good triumph over evil. Seeing two of the people she admired and looked up to save the day. Not many could understand that seeing them out there in costumes, that wasn't the real side of her heroes. The side she really loved was the one that was there for her at home at the end of most days. Just Josie and Steve Stronghold who took her into their home and made her their daughter, no questions asked. They didn't need superpowers to save her.

Once the action was over, Tenni clicked the TV off for Layla and Will and made a head start for the door. They'd catch up. She wanted however long they gave her to herself. Will had his concerns about school. She had hers. Where Will was worried about what would happen once his powerless status was outed, she was worried about what would happen if people found out about who she really was. After the Baron Battle scandal, the government was more than willing to cover up what happened with her parents. They didn't want it to be public knowledge that huge public figures and heroes had connections with well-known villain. When it was revealed that Lady Peace had been the wife of Baron Battle, she faced public denouncement and slander. Eventually, she'd retired from active hero service.

Rumor went that her retirement hadn't been entirely her choice either.

Tenni wanted to go to Sky High and spend the next four years in anonymity with Will and Layla. She wanted to graduate, serve her one year of mandatory hero/sidekick time, and live the simple life as a civilian.

She arrived at the bus stop long before the others did. It gave her time to sit with her thoughts and get a hold of them. Again, she was drawn into the worry over her identity. Only her family knew, and if it hadn't have been for Steve and Josie not wanting to keep Will in the dark, her brother probably never would've found out either. Will had actually fought with her in the past over telling their friend, but Tenni wouldn't budge. Two years was a pretty good amount of time to get to know someone. Layla was a good person, but things about her like her open friendliness and nervous babbling while endearing, made for a terrible secret keeper. Bottom line was, she just couldn't trust Layla with that big of a secret.

It was just better that way.

Her brother and the redhead were less than a block away when she spotted the bus coming from the other direction a ways down the street. They beat it to the stop by a minute or two, chatting amiably about what to expect at Sky High. The doors opened with a whoosh, revealing a pudgy man sitting in the driver's seat, eyeing all three of them critically. One glace at his name tag (Read: Sky High; RON WILSON; Bus Driver) confirmed for her that this was the right bus. She didn't give him the opportunity to speak to her, as she felt he probably would, and just flashed her pass and went to take a seat.

With some annoyance, she saw that there were no vacant rows. She wouldn't be able to have one to herself with either Will or Layla. Her annoyance increased when she spotted a familiar face farther in. The boy started waving excitedly at her, urging her to come over and take the free seat next to him.

No way, Jose.

Purposely ignoring him, she took the first available seat she could find. There was a blonde girl occupying the window seat. She stared for a bit, trying to puzzle out the odd mix and match of red, white and green the girl's outfit was. Then, she dismissed it. She had no right to talk. It wasn't like she ever put much thought into the way she dressed herself. Neither she nor the girl made any attempt to strike up conversation. Tenni simply didn't want to and the girl seemed to get that because after her own cursory glance of Tenni, she'd gone back to staring out the window.

Once settled, she turned her attention back to the front of the bus where the bus driver was making a huge commotion. She winced, feeling sorry for them. Will was obviously uncomfortable by being outed as the commander's son and Layla was made uncomfortable by the insinuation of some of the students that she was Will's girlfriend. The blush staining her cheeks and the weak protest of the statement said the opposite of what her true feelings were. Once the two had finally been released from the clutches of the bus driver, they made their way to the back, taking their own seats. Tenni frowned to herself. Was this what it was going to be like at Sky High? Would Will not only have to be subject to the pressure of their dad's expectations, but of Sky High's as well? She didn't know if he could handle it.

Considering she bore the Stronghold name as well, she'd better be ready for the same treatment as well.

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_Land!_ Tenni thought, stumbling over her feet as she hurriedly exited the bus, _Glorious Land!_

Will caught her just as she was about to trip and fall. She smiled at him gratefully. It was comforting to be safe(r) on solid ground and have him right there next to her.

The trip to school had been nerve wracking. Ron Wilson was, in her opinion, the world's most sadistic bus driver. It had all been normal until they had found themselves strapped down and someone started yelling in alarm. Before she knew it, the enormous metal contraption they were in had went plummeting towards the ground. In the midst of mass hysteria, screaming and crying teenagers, Tenni hadn't known what to do. She'd felt lost, and afraid, and she'd wanted Will there but he was rows back sitting next to the walking highlighter. Even Layla was out of reach. Just as certain death seemed inevitable, Ron had pulled the bus up out of its dive last minute. They spent the rest of the ride flying. Actually flying in a flying bus to school.

She would've been more impressed if she hadn't just been traumatized by the near-death experience.

Looking around, she started to take in Sky High. It was as if someone had just taken normal high school and suspended it in the airway above normal people. All of the other teenagers filing in looked as normal as any other off the street. That would probably come in handy later in life when they actually had to be heroes. Heroes who blended in did better work than the ones who were conspicuous.

Suddenly Tenni felt the rest of the kids from the bus join her and will, pressing against them into a somewhat defensive, hesitant huddle. It made her incredibly uncomfortable being touched by virtual strangers. She wanted the arms and shoulders to quit brushing up against her.

Her internal complaining was cut off when two boys approached their currently mobile new student herd, bringing them all to a halt. The smiles they wore, instead of being welcoming seemed malicious. They'd put on quite the display, the pudgy one being fast and the tall lanky one stretchy. Was it supposed to be an intimidation tactic? Glancing back at the others, she guessed maybe it had had its effect on some who weren't used to seeing blatant use of powers in "public" before.

"Your attention please!" one of them called out, not that they needed it. They already had everyone's eyes.

"I'm Lash, uh, this is Speed," the tall guy said introducing himself and his friend, "And as representatives of the Sky High Welcoming Committee..."

"We'd be happy to collect that fifteen dollar new student fee," Speed finished as Lash stretched out a hand to them.

It stopped just short of Tenni's nose. Her eyes crossed looking down at the offensive hand that was in her face. Reaching up, she pinched Lash's hand with her thumb and forefinger.

"No thank you," she said simply, applying a heavy dose of frost to his hand. The boy pulled it back quick as a whip, going back and forth between shaking it and breathing hotly onto it.

"Um," someone interjected nervously. It was the orange boy, "There was nothing about a new student fee in the handbook."

"Seems like the nerdy freshmen are feisty this year," Lash commented, eyeing Tenni unfriendly gaze. She simply returned it, not afraid in the least.

"Okay guys," someone else said, also cutting into the brewing conflict. This time, it was a tall, beautiful older girl dressed in ungodly amounts of bright pink, "Very funny. I'll take over from here."

Surprisingly, the goons seemed properly cowed, and skulked off when she shooed them away. She proceeded to introduce herself as Gwen Grayson, student body president. Tenni was only half interested in what she had to say. It was semi-useful information about Sky High, but she could get by without it. Hoping to distract herself, she made a game of her favorite hobby, people watching. There were quite a few intriguing prospects here at Sky High. That wasn't unexpected considering it was a school for the super powered. But she wasn't just looking for someone flaunting their powers like that boy laser eyes or even the girl who had freezing powers a lot like her own. She was looking for someone difficult to figure out.

That was when she spotted him.

At first glance, it would be easy to dismiss him as the bad boy type. Long hair with colored streaks. Black leather jacket. Fingerless gloves. Steel toe boots. Not to mention the wide berth most of the students seemed to give him, like he was dangerous. And maybe he was.

But Tenni saw the bigger picture.

His isolation from others was for the most part self-imposed. He seemed to enjoy being left alone. The minute someone approached or got too close, he tensed. When relaxed, his form returned to its typical teenaged male hunch. And surprisingly, he was reading. She couldn't tell what, but she was interested. A bad boy was generally an arrogant, dumb thug. That Lash guy fit the bill. But this guy? Whole other story. He didn't seem to be actively menacing anyone, and the fact that he seemed to be reading of his own volition put some points against him being dumb. So what did...

Oh.

He'd finally noticed that she'd been staring at him and was now staring right back. Well, not as much staring as glaring back at her. She shivered. It wasn't like she never got caught during people watching, just that usually, her subjects indulged her with funny sideways looks. His glare bore into her with intensity. Tenni couldn't help having to look away, look down at her own feet so she could catch her breath. The smart thing to do would've been to return her attention to Gwen's tour. She'd been caught in the act and it had been unwelcome. But Tenni couldn't help it. One last look couldn't hurt.

Lifting her eyes, she looked straight back at him just as he'd been about to return to reading. He started, surprised she'd had the audacity to look at him again after the glare down he'd given her earlier. The corners of her lips twitched in amusement at the ridiculous look on his face. And then the rest of her mouth fell prey to the oncoming grin she couldn't suppress even if she tried. It only served to make him more flustered and confused, which in turn only fed her mirth at the entire situation. There really was just something about this guy that made her want to pay attention.

"Tenni!" a voice whined into her ear.

With a jolt, she jumped to attention, all thought of the bad boy with fun facial expressions pushed out of her mind. Layla was shooting her an irritated look.

"I get Will not listening, but I thought you were better than that!"

"Sorry," Tenni apologized, though the minute the word left her mouth it sounded insincere.

Layla, though, seemed to accept it.

"Look at him, staring off at her like that," the redhead complained huffily.

Tenni glanced at Will who was staring dreamily at Gwen Grayson like a lovesick puppy. Her heart went out a bit to Layla, who was obviously unhappy to see him hung up on the other girl. She was so obvious about her feelings that it was amazing that Will hadn't caught on by now. His obliviousness hurt the redhead enough as it was, but now that this Gwen Grayson was in the mix, things could potentially be taking a turn for the worse. Up until now, it had seemed that Layla had gone uncontested for Will's affections. Within minutes of being introduced, he was already head over heels for their student body president.

Knowing if she tried to say anything, it would fall flat, she did the only thing she could think of to comfort the girl. She slipped her hand into the other girl's, feeling Layla squeeze it back in thanks.

* * *

Once Gwen finished up, they were rushed along to the gym. They were then subjected to another welcome, this time by their principal, Ms. Powers and then a dress down by Coach Boomer (God, these people and their names!). The sadistic man had been slowly working his way through the class. He was dividing them up into one of only two professions given to those with powers, hero, or sidekick. Although the real, politically correct, name for sidekick was "hero support", being classified as such was a sort of death sentence for popularity and fame. Heroes were the ones who got idolized and loved by the public. Their sidekicks became footnotes in their biographies. Though she loved him dearly, even her dad was guilty putting down sidekicks. She'd even felt a little bad and a little incensed for Zach's sake. Coach Boomer had blown him off stage with his power.

It wouldn't be long before he reached the three of them for power placement. In fact, Layla was about to be up. Judging by the way Layla was voicing her discontent to Will, things were bound to go bad there.

"You," the coach said, pointing at Layla, "Flower Child, let's go."

"I believe in only using my powers when the situation demands it," Layla protested, frowning.

"Well, you're in luck. This is the situation. And I'm demanding it."

"But to participate in this test would be to support a flawed system. I think the whole hero/sidekick dichotomy only serves to-"

Dear God, it was like watching a train getting ready to wreck.

"Lemme get this straight, are you refusing to show me your powers?" he asked leveling her with an bored, unimpressed look.

"It's a little more complicated than that. I mean-"

"SIDEKICK!" he yelled, cutting her off.

It was a test of restraint for Tenni, to not lift and arm and freeze the pompous ass where he stood. Layla was a bit mouthy for his own good, but she was her friend and this man was already pissing her off royally.

As if he read her mind, Will placed a hand on each girls' shoulder. Tenni tensed irritably while Layla seemed to be comforted by the gesture.

"It'll be alright," he promised. He lowered his voice to a whisper, "He's just a jerk."

Understatement.

The bell rang.

"Alright, we'll pick it up right after lunch, starting with you..." the coach said ominously, singling out Will.

Swallowing loudly, all Will could do was nodded quickly before fleeing the gym, Tenni and Layla trailing after him.

Somehow, they're lunch group was double the size Tenni expected. Will and Layla were a given. But some how the giant eyesore, the orange boy (Ethan), and the purple girl (Magenta) had tagged along. She'd eventually shrugged it off as they collected their lunch trays. It didn't really matter anyway. Her eyes had started to wander once they all figured out from her monosyllabic answers that she didn't want to join in conversation. The passed over the many people in the cafeteria, recognizing some of her fellow freshmen and Gwen Grayson at a table, surprisingly sitting with those goons from earlier and several identical girls in pigtails.

She couldn't stop the smile that took over her face when she spotted the mysterious reading bad boy from earlier. He was sitting a couple tables over facing her. Just as she felt bold enough to be tempted to wave, she noticed his thunderous expression. Frowning, she tried to figure out just what was inspiring such a look from him. He'd been glaring at her back out on the front lawn, but it had lacked the heat it now possessed. Why was he so angry?

"Am I crazy or is that guy really looking at me?" Will asked anxiously, nodding backwards.

Blinking, Tenni looked at him, then in the direction he'd motioned in, Layla following suit. The first person that fell within her line of sight was the bad boy. She tried to find someone else who fit "really looking" at Will, but it came back to him. The hate in his eyes was disturbing. Just what had Will done to warrant that level of negativity? Nothing as far as she could recall. Tenni had been right by his side the entire time they'd been at Sky High so far. Will hadn't done anything yet, directly or even indirectly, that could piss someone up.

A sinking feeling started to develop in her stomach. Maybe... Maybe it wasn't something Will had done, maybe it was...?

"Dude," Zach said, cutting across her speculations.

"What?" asked Will, squirming in his seat some.

"That's Warren Peace," Zach continued, his voice dropping to gravely serious tone.

Peace.

Now the pieces all fell into place.

"That's Warren Peace?" asked Layla, voicing the question Tenni had wanted to but wouldn't.

"Yeah."

"I've heard about him. His mom's a hero and his dad's a super villain. Baron Battle."

Tenni already knew this. Or at least, she knew the story of Lady Peace and Baron Battle. The story of two people on opposite sides of a war, torn apart by it. The first time she'd heard it, it had hit a little too close to home to want to hear much more. But now, she wished she had. Because apparently, in the midst of their doomed romance, they'd had a child. A child who'd been caught up in the resulting scandal. Someone who, unfortunately, probably didn't have someone like an Aunt Josie and Uncle Steve to fly in and save the day, make all of the bad things go away. To adopt them and give them a second chance at a more normal life.

"Where do I come in?" Will questioned, confused.

_No_, Tenni thought, _I don't want to know._

"Your dad busted his dad. Quadruple life sentence," Ethan explained.

"No parole until after his third life," Magenta added."

Of course. The first person that had to go and make themselves interesting and have a similar background to her, held a grudge against the Commander, her dad. She'd already tried to withdraw further from their conversation, not wanting to hear anymore. It was almost too sad. Putting a face and a name to miserable thing her life could have been like without her new mom and dad.

"That's just great. My first day of Sky High, and I already have my first archenemy. Hmm." Will glanced at Layla. "Is he still looking?

"Umm..." she quavered, "Not at you."

Tenni looked up. Angry eyes stared back at her accusingly. And suddenly, she felt suffocated by them. She desperately wanted him to not look at her that way. Like she was evil. She wasn't evil.

_I'm not evil! I'm not a villain!_ she chanted to herself in her head.

Standing abruptly, breaking eye contact as she did, picked up her tray and made to leave the cafeteria. Before she could get very far, her wrist was caught by Will reaching across the table and grasping it.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm done, so I'm going to leave." His grip didn't lessen, and by the look on his face, he wanted a better answer. "I need to get out of here. I need somewhere quiet so I can think."

"Are you sure?"

His eyes flicked back in Warren's direction. It made her unwillingly return her own to the dark boy.

"I'll be fine. I'll just wait at the gym for you guys. I'll be fine okay?"

He still looked unsure, but released her. Tenni plastered a reassuring smile on her face for him.

"See you then."

"Be careful," he murmured to her back, just loud enough for her to catch.

Not that she needed it. She could handle herself just fine. She always had.

But this situation was different. She didn't know if she could handle it. There was someone out there who understood what it was like. She'd finally met him, only to find out that he hated her and her entire family. Had she been a terrible person in her last life to receive such terrible karma? To have this opportunity she'd been dreaming of gift wrapped and presented to her in an iron bear trap? To her dismay, tears had begun to pool just within her eyelids. She blinked furiously to stop them from spilling. Her instincts further proved themselves traitorous as she looked back again at him even though she knew she shouldn't.

The glare was gone.

All that was left was a thoughtful look. It became confused when he took in how her own face looked. Hideous, she imagined. Tenni had always been an ugly crier, red faced and snotty, with an unattractive pout. Even if the tears hadn't quite spilled yet, she was sure it couldn't be pretty even pre-tears. Refusing to let this boy catch her in this state, she forced a brave smile before looking away for the last time and exiting the cafeteria.

So much for a good first day.

* * *

**Chapter One: Up in the Air** - End

* * *

AN: Wow. This came out way different. I look between this and the original chapter one, and Tenni as a character and the circumstances just come off looking way different. While I'm at this, I'd also like to apologize for posting the prologue and then falling off the side of the earth. I just wasn't feeling the story coming to me and then Glee and harry Potter ate my brain.

* * *

Next Installment

Chapter Two: Brace Yourself


	3. Chapter Two: Brace Yourself

**Chapter Two: Brace Yourself**

* * *

"Turn around  
Every now and then  
I get a little bit helpless and  
I'm like a child lying in your arms."

-Total Eclipse of a Heart, Bonnie Tyler

* * *

"Stronghold!" Coach Boomer called out once he was done glancing at his clipboard, scanning the crowd with narrowed eyes.

Will glanced at Tenni as she glanced at him.

"Which one?" Layla asked for the both of them.

"What?" The coach looked at her bewildered and incredulous before looking down at his clipboard again. "There are two?"

"Yeah." Tenni and Will answered in unison, smiling as they did it.

"Um... well, the first one. Tennille Stronghold."

Her lips twitched from the oncoming frown that threatened to tug the upturned corners down. She would've corrected him if she didn't already know the effort would be wasted on Coach Boomer. He didn't strike her as the type who took other people's name preferences seriously. Tenni moved quickly, taking the steps two at a time until she was on the testing platform. She waited expectantly for Boomer to drop the car like he had with the others.

"Well, what's your power?"

"Aquakinesis," she answered impatiently.

"Car," the man said simply in response, hitting the button on the remote.

Arms shot up into the air and torrents of water were gushing out of her palms, hitting the car and keeping it suspended in the air where its descent was halted.

"Good?"

"Impressive." There was something unsettling about the way his eyebrow arched. It caused her control to waver the slightest, making the car wobble precariously on the waves of water buoying it up. The moment passed and he was pulling the car back. "Hero. Now get off the stage."

More than happy to oblige, she dismissed the water and practically skipped back down to where Will and Layla were. Will was looking nervous and a little green around the gills.

"You did great," Layla gushed.

"Yeah! That was awesome!" Zach cheered, "It was like, whoosh! And the car stopped!"

Tenni blinked, temporarily stunned by his enthusiastic praise, before returning her attention to Will.

"You're up." She touched his arm gently. "Good luck."

"Yeah. I'll need it."

He trudged up the platform, as if he was walking out to the chopping block. When Boomer asked him to say what his power was, Will moved over to his side and whispered something into the coach's ear.

"What do you mean, you don't know what your power is?" Boomer demanded.

Tenni winced. Will shifted nervously, stuttering out the beginnings of an explanation.

"Oh," Boomer said, giving an exasperated smile, "I get it. You're messing with the coach. Just like your old man." His smile got wider and he lifted the remote. "Car."

"Wait, no!" Tenni cried, Layla gasping in terror beside her.

The car fell so fast, it barely gave Will any time to hit the deck so it didn't just flatten him. Hearing him yell from underneath the car sent a wave of relief crashing over Tenni. He hadn't been killed. In fact, he was on his feet chewing out Boomer for that stunt. That was good. Her moment of relief turned into horror again when the floor beneath Will turned out to be a floor panel that, when Boomer hit another button, threw Will into a wall.

"Will!" she cried, running to his side immediately.

"Hey," he murmured feebly, looking dazedly up at her.

"Kid, come on. Quit messing with me. What's you're power?"

"He told you he didn't have one!" Tenni snapped at the man, "He told you and you didn't listen!"

"Huh." The coach shrugged, and wrote something down. "Well then, Will Stronghold, SIDEKICK!"

The force of his unnecessary bellow knocked both her and Will back. Indignant, Tenni was already on her feet and ready to shout when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"What?" She glared at the owner of the hand.

"We should get him to the nurse's office Ten," Zach told her, squatting to heft Will onto his feet.

With the way Will was so unsteady on his feet, her anger at Boomer quickly evaporated and was replaced concern. She didn't even get upset with Zach for butchering her name. All she could really do was move to the other side of Will and help carry him from under his other shoulder. Layla followed along, cycling between worried hovering and expressing the rage and fury Tenni was now too emotionally exhausted to express herself.

"Is he okay?"

"_He _is fine," Will answered for himself, groaning immediately after, "Getting thrown into walls sucks."

"I feel you bro," Zach commiserated, "Got tossed around a bit myself."

"I can't believe that man!" Layla exclaimed, back to being angry, "No, wait, I can't believe this school! How could they think that implementing a system where dropping cars on unsuspecting incoming students is a good idea? Will could've been seriously hurt! More so than he already is!" Her eyes went wide. "Are you sure you're okay Will? Did you hit your head? You might have a concussion!"

"I can't really remember if I hit my head."

"What hurts?" Tenni asked quietly.

"My entire backside," Will responded with a grimace, "It's pretty sore."

Layla was still ranting in the background, about memory loss resulting from a head wound, and the school being liable in the case of injuring students with their awful testing methods. It didn't take them too much longer before they made it to the nurse's office. Thank God Layla had remembered where it was from Gwen's tour, because there was no way Tenni, let alone Will or Zach, had remembered where it was. By the end of the session, the girl was sure she wanted to strangle the old woman. On a good day, Tenni would probably find her off beat humor and jokes about their dad to be funny, but today? It was really inappropriate and it was terrible seeing Will still being dragged through the dirt even if power placement was already over. The information about Ron obviously did little to comfort Will about his no powers problem. She'd caught Layla's eyes as the nurse chatted, Layla worrying her bottom lip as Tenni's own hands tightened into fists.

All four of them left her office in varying emotional states. Zach was over his serious streak, already joking and playing around again. Layla was making an effort to join in, talking about how lovely the campus was despite the faculty. Neither Tenni nor Will contributed. This was typical of Tenni, she generally didn't have much she wanted to say, and the situation at hand wasn't demanding her to say anything so she didn't. Then there was Will. All of them knew he really wasn't in the mood. Tenni just took his hand in her own as they went to find wherever the freshman class had gone so they could finish up their first, disastrous day in peace.

Once school was over for the day, and they'd gone through a much less traumatic return ride back to Maxville, the Stronghold siblings, with Layla in tow, wandered down to the park a block and a half down from their houses. None of them were in a hurry to be home. Zach had declined coming with them, and Tenni could admit she wouldn't have minded having him tag along as much as she usually did. He had proved to be good at easing the tension when both she and Will were unequipped and unwilling to. The three of them walked aimlessly around the park, stopping every now and then to climb a play structure they pretty much dwarfed now or to sit at the swings and push out every now and then. It was already dark by the time they started heading back to their houses.

Layla waved goodbye, letting them know she'd be free to hangout on the roof after dinner as she went.

Will and Tenni stopped together on the front step, each taking a deep breath.

"So..." Will let out a gusty sigh, "I don't know how to break it to them."

"It'll be alright."

"Maybe you can tell them you got into hero first so they can have some good news to soften them up."

"Sure." Tenni glanced at him. "Whatever happens, I'm here for you. Layla too." She paused. "And that big lug as well."

"I still don't understand what you're problem with Zach is," Will said, trying to stifle a chuckle.

"Let's go."

She tugged him in after her.

Will had gone to his room to sit on the roof and wait for Layla. Surprisingly, or unsurprisingly, he hadn't told mom and dad at dinner. Even now, he couldn't fess up to not having powers, unable to handle the disappointment. And now, he couldn't admit to being a sidekick. He'd just let Tenni tell them about her own placement and carefully dodged speaking by offering to bus the table and wash the dishes. When she'd come into the kitchen to help him dry and put them away, he'd begged her to keep it secret.

Another secret she had to keep.

It wasn't all right, but she had to admit, but she could get over it. She went to her own room, closing the door behind her and kicking off her shoes before throwing herself onto her bed. The minute she hit it, she went boneless with relief. Home. Bed. Awkward dinner over with. Comforting Will was Layla's job for now. School and its complications were tomorrow's problem.

Here and now, she could think in peace.

* * *

There was little excitement during the rest of that short first week. They were all getting into the swing of superhero high school. Tenni had a load of extra stress though. Unlike the others, she was the only one on the hero track. That meant she was on her own in most of her classes, without anyone she knew or was comfortable with in any of her classes. There was lunch. She would've said PE, but they kept Hero and Sidekick groups separate unless there was a Save the Citizen match at the end of class. And Tenni already despised having to watch those matches. She didn't know what was worse about it. Watching Lash and Speed crush their opposition or sitting with the crowd and hearing them cheer the two on.

Basically, she was feeling kind of lonely and sorry for herself. She was starting to get depressed listening to Will and the others plan for a study group tonight over lunch. It wasn't like she didn't want them over, they were her friends too. What it was, was that... she just didn't have the same luxury. No one was her friend in her hero's class. The only person who was even friendly to her was the TA for her Mad Science class, Gwen Grayson. Gwen was friendly with everyone though, so Tenni didn't bother considering her. Even though she liked her solitude, she wanted to share it with someone. Someone of her own.

Her burger and salad were quickly dispatched, since she wasn't as distracted from eating by talking like the others were. She sat quietly listening to them talk some more about some assignment or other, awkwardly waiting to see if they would directly address her, or if she should add anything. When the same conversation stretched on for another three minutes without any sign of changing or welcome of topic change, she breathed a very small sigh through her nose and got up to leave.

"You're going?" Will suddenly asked, as if just remembering she'd been there the entire time.

"Yeah," she replied slowly, annoyed she'd been caught when she'd tried to leave without any notice, "Just to the library. There was something I wanted to check out."

"Oh. Okay." He smiled. "The others are coming by after school today."

"I know."

"Oh. So, um. Okay."

"See you on the bus," Tenni said, waving behind her to him.

He knew the dismissal for what it was and let her go without anymore fuss.

Even though she had been planning to go to the library, she hadn't really felt the overpowering urge to go now. She just needed a plausible excuse to get away for a bit. Will worried like a mother hen over her whenever she took off on her own. He was paranoid about her getting caught in the hall by bullies. Which was ironic considering the only people who got harassed by Lash and Speed on a regular basis were Will and the others when _she _wasn't around. Truthfully, she knew the real reason why he was anxious. And it wasn't Lash or Speed catching her alone, because she could and would handle them.

Warren Peace.

Will was smart to worry. Warren Peace didn't need to put voice to the fact he hated their guts. Despite the fact it would've been smart of her to fear him or at least not think about him at all, that dark boy always on the periphery of her thoughts, if not right at the eye of the storm. It was disturbing how quickly she'd become fixated on him, not just out of fear but fascination. How desperately she wished he would acknowledge her with something other than scorn. Which with every day of glaring from a distance was looking more and more unlikely. He obviously blamed the Commander for what happened to his family. And even if it wasn't fair that she and Will had to pay for it, she couldn't make Warren not hate them. Or, it was more like she wouldn't make Warren stop hating her. The truth was that Tenni wasn't Steve Stonghold's daughter by blood. But Tenni would sooner confess undying love to Coach Boomer than ever tell the truth and or admit Steve wasn't her dad. She couldn't do that to herself or him over just some boy.

Huffing, she shook her head the slightest and kept walking. It was unimportant right now. The longer she let herself dwell over her secret and Warren, the more she was going to upset herself. And being upset wasn't a good idea. The air around her had already dropped a couple degrees in temperature.

Just as she turned the corner to the hall that the library was in, she walked right into a big, black colored barrier. Tenni, small as she was, practically bounced right off of whatever it was. Stumbling back several steps, it took her a moment to make sure she was stable on her feet again. Once she'd managed that, she looked up to see what it was she'd managed to walk into. Her stomach started rolling uncomfortably around in her gut at the sight of Warren Peace, glaring down at her. She looked down, and saw some books at their feet. Those were probably Warren's books. She watched him enough to know he liked to read a lot. It was probably the only thing she observed him doing other than glaring at her and Will.

"I-I'm sorry!" she squeaked, instantly stooping down and gathering what he'd dropped into her arms.

There was a textbook. Studying? She added possible good student or hard worker to the mental list of Warren factoids she'd been compiling. There were some others. She would've spent more time looking over the titles if something else didn't catch her eye first. Thinner and lighter, paper but not a book. A comic book she finally concluded. As she reached to pick it up, it was suddenly snatched up in a larger hand. Blinking, Tenni watched as Warren quickly grabbed what she hadn't already picked up. He stood abruptly, and she followed him up. They stood there, not really looking at each other but in each other's general space. Swallowing, she steeled herself and handed the books she was holding back to him. Glancing nervously at his face, she offered him an awkward smile.

"Here."

He stared down at her, confused and incredulous. And then he took them, not very gently, and brushed past her in the opposite direction. She waited ten seconds before allowing herself to look back. Warren was already out of sight. Tenni was unsure what she was looking back for. Turning back around, she continued on to the library, carefully making a wide turn at the corner so she avoided bumping into anyone else.

_Better not tell Will about this_, she thought idly to herself, _He wouldn't understand it. Not that I understand whatever it is either._

* * *

The bus ride home was full of screams of glee and excitement. Since the first nerve-wracking ride, the students had developed an acquired taste for the death defying bus flight, treating it much like a roller coaster ride. Tenni, who had never known what roller coasters were like before coming to live in Maxville, and liked them even less after Will had tried to introduce her to them, spent each ride in tense yet dignified silence. Not that she ever deprived Magenta of the privilege to scream her heart out. The shifting goth girl had become her unexpected but not unwelcome bus partner. She was quiet and didn't feel the unnecessary need to point out the obvious unless she was being witty or sarcastic. And Tenni appreciated that sarcasm and the way Magenta knew when she didn't want to talk to her. It made sitting through Zach's obnoxious chatter and Ethan always being intimidated around her more bearable.

And sitting next to one another meant that neither of them had to sit next to Leering Larry, the perpetually sleazy geek who liked to eyeball them whenever Layla was out of line of sight.

The bus finally touched down at the Maxville city limits, and the bus began the more uneventful part of its drive to Will, Tenni and Layla's part of town. All of the teens piled out of the bus, ambling down the streets towards home. It wasn't long before they arrived and were all in the Stronghold household, gathered in the living room with their books. Tenni, though she felt out of place since she wasn't really studying what they were studying, didn't want to be alone in her room, so she had joined them in the living room as well. She sat on the floor against the couch Will and Layla were occupying, leaning lightly against Will's leg with her legs pulled to her chest. Perched precariously on top of her knees was the joint laptop she and Will had been given at the end of middle school to share for high school use. Usually she used it for what it was meant for, but her homework had been done for a while now and she was bored. And technically, what she was doing _could _be considered research.

Technically.

She was scouring the web for comic books. Ones that started with F. That had been all she'd been able to see of the title on Warren's comic. It was tough wading through the many possible titles. There were just so many comics out there. Classic superhero comics got mixed with every two-bit superhero out there who got their own series. And then there were other genres besides superheroes. Some of them were so out there it made Tenni cringe and scramble to click out of it as fast as the browser allowed. She hoped that Will and Layla were so preoccupied with their studying, they weren't sparing any time to glance over her shoulder and look at the screen. The girl had gotten so engrossed in her online search, she almost missed the lapse in study-oriented discussion and a new voice joining those in the living room. Looking up, she blinked owlishly at the sight of her dad, not getting why he was standing there.

Wasn't he supposed to be out for the whole day fighting crime with mom?

Her brain, numbed by the dredge of online comic book hunting, went through an abrupt restart as she began processing what dad being home meant. Will had spent days painstakingly planning this study group around the expectation that mom and dad wouldn't be home. More specifically, that dad wouldn't be home. Even after power placement, Will was still putting on the song and dance for dad that he was a hero with super strength. He always did his homework for his sidekick courses in the safety of his room or hers and never took up mom's offers for help on any tough questions. And a study group could only be had at Casa Stronghold if there were no adults around to eavesdrop on what was being reviewed.

But dad was home, still decked out in the Commander suit.

Panic crashed into her. She didn't need to look at Will to know he was experiencing it ten fold. Will had gotten up to greet Steve, to head him off from his friends, but it was no use. Their dad was a people person, smiling, shaking hands, and practically demanding introductions with his eyes. From there, it was like being witness to a train wreck. Ethan, then Zach (who dad had met before but had never known had powers), and then Magenta. There was confusion in Steve's expression, but he kept smiling, and being polite. Eventually, he offered to make some tuna salad sandwiches and excused himself.

"Hey Tenni," Will said quietly, "Let me up will you?"

"Uh..." she glanced at him. He looked nervous, "Sure."

He avoided her eyes.

"I'm gonna just... There's something I want to find out. I'm gonna go talk to dad."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Tenni asked, knowing exactly what he meant, "I'm kinda hungry. I might take dad up on one of those sandwiches."

"No thanks." He dropped a hand on her shoulder and squeezed it in thanks before standing. "I'll bring one back for you."

An awkward silence fell over the living room as he departed. It didn't take knowing Will like she and Layla did for the others to figure out something big was going on. All of them were proved right when the voices from the kitchen started getting louder, dad's growing angrier as he continued. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Layla move as if to get up. Tenni reached out and put a hand on her knee. It was enough to halt any further attempts. Will needed to do this. This wasn't the best time or place for it, but he'd finally worked up the courage to tell dad the truth. They needed to let it play out.

Eventually, it was over.

Will quietly walked back in, taking a shaky breath as he lowered himself back onto the couch next to Layla, carefully avoiding stepping on Tenni. He set the plate with the sandwich down on the table and slid it a couple of inches over so it sat just in front of her face on the wooden surface.

"Thank you," she said quietly, and out of sight, she reached and squeezed his ankle.

"You're welcome," he told her back, he looked to Layla and the others, "So where were we?"

Studying resumed at a stilted pace. Will tried to go on as if nothing happened. The others tried to respect his silent request as well. Tenni however, had nothing but the sandwich to distract her from thinking about it. Once the sandwich was gone, she excused herself to go put her plate in the sink. It really shouldn't have come as a surprise to her that her dad was still in the kitchen where Will had obviously left him after their talk. He was faced away from her. His shoulders were hunched and his palms were flat against the counter as he leaned into it. There were makings for sandwiches out on the kitchen island top, but they looked abandoned halfway through spreading the mayo on the bread slices. She went in cautiously. For the years she'd lived as a part of the family, Steve was always a happy, controlled man, but that hadn't been happiness or control she'd been hearing earlier.

Caution, as it turned out, wasn't necessary. She'd set the plate in the sink and run some water to rinse it and he hadn't reacted. He continued to stand there, stuck in whatever was going on in his head. For a moment, she entertained the thought that she could probably break a jackhammer trying to snap him out of it, and he wouldn't feel it or even notice.

"Dad?" She had to repeat herself several times, each time louder.

He was slow to stir, but she knew he heard her from the slightest twitch of his shoulders. His head turned and he looked at her with his very blue eyes.

"Did you know? About Will?"

"Having no powers?" He nodded still turned away from her. "Yeah."

"How could he let your mother and I think...?"

"How couldn't he?" He finally looked at her and the lack of understanding she found in his eyes urged her to go on. "He's the son of the Commander and Jetstream."

"So?"

"Don't you think that your guy's reputations put a lot of pressure on him to be a hero?"

"Your mother and I never pressure him!" he yelled.

Tenni shrunk a bit at the volume, but held her ground.

"I didn't say you did," she almost stuttered out, "But your reputations do. You guys are the biggest superhero team in the world. People expect Will as your son to be something spectacular too. The super society certainly expects Will to live up to it. Will expects Will to live up to it. But he can't."

"He could still develop powers."

The denial wafting off of him into the room was so palpable, she could barely stand to look at him. This was her dad. He just wanted Will to be great. But this wasn't just about dad. This was about Will. It was always about Will. For that moment, she struggled with her feelings, with her desire to not upset him and her desire to protect Will. And then she opened her mouth.

"You can believe that." It came out mocking, almost bitter. "Right now though, he doesn't. It's more than likely he _never_will. Will may spend the rest of his life as a powerless sidekick. You need to be ready to accept and live with that dad, because if you don't, you're just another person who makes Will get down on himself with your disappointment. And if you do that to him, I won't forgive you."

Immediately, her bravery left her. He was speechless, with anger or hurt, she couldn't tell, there were just so many emotions in his expressive eyes. She'd spoken her piece. There wasn't any need to stick around in case Steve did get upset with her. Tenni would just go to bed now and... let it sink in. Overnight. And maybe skip breakfast to head straight to the bus tomorrow morning to avoid any awkward run ins or confrontations. And go straight to her room after school. Rinse and repeat for about a week. Or until she could get out of the house and find a place of her own. Maybe he'd have forgotten about it by then. Just as she began her retreat from the kitchen, the sound a soft yet stern clearing of a throat stopped her. She peeked behind her and saw Jetstream, Josie, mom, standing there.

"Steve, before you say something you might regret to our daughter, I suggest you take what she said seriously," she said firmly, "I've been here long enough to know what's going on, and Tenni's right. Will is still our son, even if he's a sidekick with no powers. We'll love him as a sidekick the same as if he were a hero." He opened his mouth to speak, but she held a hand up. "We still have guests who may or may not be eavesdropping on this conversation. I suggest we wait to have this conversation at a better time. Alright you two?"

Nearly crying in relief that her mom had shown up to diffuse the situation and give her an out, she nodded gratefully and shot off. Passing through the living room, she saw that the others seemed like they'd been engrossed in studying (or at least very good at pretending they'd been engrossed). She nabbed the laptop and told them goodnight, receiving a chorus of them as she left. It was only once she was up the staircase and in her own room with the door shut that she allowed herself to breathe a little easier.

Another crazy day, finally over with.

* * *

It was still dark when she felt herself starting to stir. Tired, she tried to figure out why exactly she was waking up in the middle of the night. The answer came when she noticed her door was open and someone was coming in. Stiffening, her mind went from zero to sixty miles per hour as she mentally tried to figure out who would come to her room at this time of night. She entertained the worst-case scenario that it was dad, wanting to come give her a piece of her mind after she'd practically yelled at him earlier that evening. But no. Dad didn't do stuff like that. With guilt, she recognized the fact that dad would probably be apologizing profusely to her tomorrow morning for upsetting _her_. And there really was only one person who'd be coming to her in the night.

"Will?" she mumbled out groggily.

"Sorry," she heard him whisper back as he stopped at the side of her bed.

"It's okay."

"Did I wake you up?" Before she even think to respond, he was already talking again. "Never mind. Of course I woke you up. Who stays up this late on a school night anyway? Sorry."

"Already told you it was okay." She rolled on her side so she could face him better. "What is it Will?"

"I can't sleep. It's just... today..."

"You told dad the truth and he flipped." He winced. "Yeah. We all heard. I'm proud of you though, you know?"

"At least someone isn't disappointed in me today."

"They'll get over it. They love you. Love means you get over stuff like that, right?" She yawned and shifted back a bit on her bed. "You want to sleep here tonight?"

"I don't- you don't have to-"

"I don't mind. You're the one who decided when he turned thirteen that sleeping in the same bed with girl was weird."

It didn't take being able to see in the dark for her to know Will was blushing. She could hear him sputtering in embarrassment. To save him from floundering any longer, her fingers circled his wrist and tugged a little. There wasn't any real force behind her tug, but Will moved with it anyway, pushing back the covers a bit to let himself in next to her. Soon, they were lying on their sides, facing one another. There was only one pillow, and Tenni wasn't giving it up and Will wasn't going without, so their foreheads were touching and their faces were so close they could feel each puff of breath the other exhaled on their cheeks. It wasn't an unfamiliar or uncomfortable arrangement. This was family, maybe not fully by blood, but what blood there was enough. As her breathing slowed and evened out, her lips sluggishly whisper-mouthed something to Will, even though she didn't really know what she was saying to him but saying it anyway. He smiled back at her and put a finger to her lips to shush her.

"Go back to sleep already."

"'Kay."

"Night."

"Mmm."

And with that, she drifted off.

* * *

**Chapter Two: Brace Yourself** - End

* * *

Nana: FINALLY. I can post this sucker. Something weird happened with the formatting every time I tried to put it through Doc Manager. It was a major pain in the ass. Hurt my feelings that it wouldn't let me post it! Anywhoo, somewhat serious and business-y. I'm looking for a beta for this story. Someone whose fairly familiar with Past Upon Lies and Illusions since this is the rewrite of that. I just need someone to talk to about the direction this story is going in, in comparison to the original. What becomes divergent, what stays the same. Are changes for the better of the story? Stuff like that. That's all. Thank you, and I hope you all are having wonderful winter hols!

* * *

Next Installment:

Chapter Three: Boiling Point


	4. Chapter Three: Boiling Point

**Chapter Three: Boiling Point**

* * *

"Oh we're not gonna take it

No, we ain't gonna take it  
Oh we're not gonna take it anymore"

-We're Not Gonna Take It, Twisted Sister

* * *

So Tenni may have been feeling a bit melodramatic after _the argument. _Dad had been stiff and awkward for all of five minutes the next morning before apologizing profusely to her and Will. Will had been too stunned to say anything. Tenni was stunned for several minutes before bursting into her own apologies. Mom had finally put a stop to it by tutting at all of them like they were five and ordering them to eat breakfast. All too willing to put it in the past with no hard feelings, they all dug in. Layla joined them not much later and the two red heads watched as the three of them ate enough to feed a starving village. Plates were then bussed, goodbyes were traded and then she and will were off like shots, Layla following them at a more sedate pace.

Sure, things were patched up now, but neither she nor Will were much for drawing out the make ups with Dad.

Things on the bus were better. The others were more than willing to forget the Stronghold family drama they'd played audience to the night before. For a moment, Tenni wondered if they'd actually heard round two. She was embarrassed at the thought of being overheard, and somewhat ashamed considering how bad it had been airing the family's dirty laundry the first time around.

Magenta didn't allow her much time to sit with her inner turmoil. She pestered the girl into conversation concerning boots and asking her whether or not she should considering branching out her wardrobe color scheme. For a moment, Tenni wondered if boarding the bus had been like walking through a trans-dimensional portal where the Magenta of that dimension actually wanted to wear colors other than purple and black, but shrugged it off. It was probably thanks to all the reading from hero handbook she'd been doing that had her thinking like this. There'd actually been a chapter on how to recognize if you'd been transported into a different dimension and what to do if you did. As bizarre as Magenta trying to introduce diversity to her clothing was, Tenni figured this was not a different dimension type of issue. Just the start to a very strange day.

"Tenni, we've landed. It's time to get off." Magenta prodded her impatiently.

Glancing out the window, she saw the school and all the people milling about. She flushed a little, realizing she was holding up Magenta since she was the aisle seat, as per their agreement to keep Tenni from getting too airsick sitting next to the window.

"Yeah, sorry," she apologized, quickly standing and moving out of the way.

The Goth girl rolled her eyes in a good natured way.

"Don't sweat it. I've gotten used to the fact you're the biggest space case ever. Don't think I didn't notice your eyes starting to glaze over during the bus ride."

Mortified at being caught, Tenni started to move to apologize again when she noticed the wicked smirk on the shifter's lips. Huffing, she turned her back on Magenta and headed for the front of the bus.

"Aww, don't pout!" she called after her teasingly chagrined.

Ignoring her, Tenni let herself off the steps and onto the lawn.

And almost immediately felt something was wrong.

With a yelp, both her hands went to the waistband of her skirt just as she felt it begin to slip downwards. Desperately, she tugged upwards to halt the descent, but the pull in the opposite direction proved persistent. She gave a distressed cry when she heard the sound of fabric tearing.

"Tenni!" Magenta yelled from on the bus, rushing out to her after hearing her cry.

A million things began to run through her mind in the minutes after. There was a building surge of humiliation and shame threatening to overflow the well of emotions in her head. Magenta was there at her side. Not far from them was Will, Layla and the rest, who'd been talking to Ron and were now turning back to see what was holding them up. Something moved just in her periphery, slithering like a snake. Striped. Black and white. She tracked the movement with detached interest until it went still. The snake became and arm and the head with the blue scrap of her skirt trapped in its fangs became a hand. Her eyes traveled up the arm to see the face of her tormentor.

Lash.

He just stood there, smirking at her and at his side, Speed was doubled over howling in laughter at her.

She wanted to cross the yard so she could claw his eyes out. She was sure she could reach that high if she tried. Or she could freeze him. That would work.

But then she remembered her skirt. The tear was so big. Tenni could feel the cold metal surface of the bus against the back of her thigh. She pressed herself against it so no one could see her now partially exposed backside. As angry as she was, as much as she wanted to attack that filthy bastard that had humiliated her, she'd be further exposing herself to humiliation by showing her ass to the world. She was trapped. Magenta was tugging at her arm trying to get her to say what was wrong and the others were closing in, concern plain on their faces. Though that concern was rapidly shifting to panic for Will and Layla.

Just how bad did her face look to them, she wondered, to be getting that kind of response?

Suddenly, she was cut off from that thought when she felt something else looping around her waist. Desperately, she tried to shove away whatever it was, but she couldn't. Looking down, she saw a pair of arms tying a sweater around her waist. A pink sweater. Looking up again, she saw who the arms and the sweater belonged to.

"Gw-Gwen?"

"Don't worry, sweetie," Gwen said as she knotted the sleeves gently at her front, "This is just a temporary fix for now. I have a pair of sweat pants from P.E. you can borrow for the day. If we hurry, we can get you changed before Mr. Medulla's class starts."

"Tenni?"

Both she and Gwen stopped to look at the purple girl.

"You should head to class. I'll take care of her," Gwen kindly told her.

She hesitated; her desire to continue to hover near Tenni put not knowing what to do. It was different, considering Magenta was usually the type to be direct and act. Following Gwen's lead, she nodded at her friend to give her permission to leave her with the school president.

"I'll be all right."

After holding back a moment longer, Magenta nodded and walked over to intercept the others. Will and Layla didn't appear to be soothed by her explanation or happy with being dragged away. Again, Tenni thanked Magenta in her mind for trying to look out for her. She really was a good friend. Glancing shyly at Gwen, she noticed the older girl watching her with equal parts sympathy and compassion.

"Let's go."

She held a hand out to Tenni and Tenni, so overwhelmed and humbled by Gwen of all people coming to her rescue, took the hand without question and let Gwen lead her wherever it was she was going to take her.

* * *

Gwen Grayson was apparently a saint in pink wrapping. She'd hustled Tenni into the school and over to her locker where she'd produced a pair of sweatpants that while thick and lumpy as sweat pants tended to be, were comfortable. And not pink as she'd expected of Gwen but a soft blue that Tenni liked and found didn't clash with her lighter blue sweater. Not that she actually spent a lot of time thinking about color coordinating outfits or anything like most people she knew did or anything. She just liked avoiding wearing ugly color combinations like violet-purple and burnt orange or something like that. It was common sense.

To add to her much appreciated loaning of the sweat pants, Gwen derailed the scolding Medulla had prepared for Tenni for showing up late to class. Medulla typically showed no mercy to late arrivals. Something poor Dennis Hellman, idiot though he was, knew all too well considering he was perpetually late. It was no secret that mad scientist had a soft spot for his TA. Gwen had totally pressed her advantage to get Tenni off and it had been awesome. She felt like, Zach or something when he'd first met Steve in junior high school, with all of this dopey, incoherent fumbling over herself around Gwen.

And as if loaning her the sweat pants and getting her out of detention wasn't enough, Gwen had also invited the aquakinetic to be part of the Homecoming Committee. She hadn't been able to tell Gwen yes, part from being scared she wouldn't be able to handle that kind of responsibility and part because she was still overwhelmed that Gwen was talking to her like a friend. Inviting her to be a part of something. Not just the other day she'd been internally moaning about how lonely and unnoticed she was amongst her hero peers. She'd dismissed Gwen before for being too popular to ever take notice of her. Maybe she'd been too quick to judge the other girl?

In the end, she'd tabled Gwen's invitation with an "I'll think about it". She still wasn't sure that she was the right person for helping out with Homecoming preparations, but maybe she'd change her mind. Gwen was good company and she did kind of owe her now for helping her out with Lash.

And maybe it could turn out to be one of those experiences Steve and Josie and even Rhonda a long time ago, had told her were key experiences in the social life of a teenager. Tenni had never put much stock into what they said. That was because she considered herself part of the minority (set leagues apart from normal people) of teenagers with powers, and even further isolated by her unconventional early childhood upbringing with her real parents. Why should she expect any experience to be normal? Though she desperately sought some normality, she'd resigned herself to the thought there were certain aspects of normality she'd never achieve.

That was probably why Josie (Mom) always told her she was too jaded for fourteen year-old going on fifteen.

Maybe she really did need to start putting the past behind her. She couldn't let her trauma continue to limit her options in life, even if one of those options involved giving the vapid teenage girl experience a chance.

However, that was easier said than done.

Especially considering she still refused to talk to anyone, even Will, about her life before his family. Then there were her obsessive behaviors concerning one Warren Peace. It had been bad enough when he was just the random focus of her people watching, which was already kind of creepy by some people's standards. It was a heavy denial she'd sunk herself into regarding him. Her motives toward picking him apart were becoming less innocently motivated and more selfishly driven. How did Warren Peace cope with the legacy his parents left him with? Or maybe he wasn't coping. If he wasn't coping, what did she need to do differently to seem like a normal person who seemed like they were coping?

How did you succeed at being a normal person?

* * *

Mr. Reynolds's class was as engaging as usual. He was as much of an egomaniac as Coach Boomer was but at least he knew how to do his job without trying to kill his students every class. His class was Heroes History, which wasn't quite her favorite subject, but at least not the worst as long as he kept his boasting about his own career to a minimum. Her success (survival) in the class might've had to do with the fact the Stronghold family name was deeply entwined with the history of heroes. Her knowledge of the family history thanks to Mom and Dad gave her an edge in class. While Will had sat at dinners with eyes glazed over, Tenni had listened to them talk about all of their battles and diplomatic missions. Even if the other kids thought she was a nerd, she liked it when Mr. Reynolds was stunned by her ability to answer questions he must've thought up strictly for the purpose of stumping the entire class.

Still, as tolerable as the class was, nothing could settle the dread she was feeling about the day they started breaching topics of a more sensitive nature.

There was no way they weren't dodging covering the infamous fight between Baron Battle and the Commander. While that would be an uncomfortable topic, it paled in comparison to the possibility of the fight that had resulted in her parent's deaths. The only relief was that very few people knew enough (thanks to extensive government cover ups) to tie her, or Aunt Josie, to that incident.

She wondered vaguely how much worse Warren had than her.

Class was beginning to wind down. Most of the lessons so far had been very general, since this was a freshman level class meant to be an introduction to heroism in history. So far, they'd gone over topics like how history defined a hero and what impact a hero had on history. They were starting to cover the origins of heroes, dating back to the proto-heroes of the distant past all the way up to the Age of Superheroes, starting with Major Victory *. Major Victory was better known to her as Joseph Stronghold, first generation of the superhero Strongholds and Steve Stronghold's father.

To most, Joseph "Major Victory" Stronghold was a relic of the past, his son being the more prolific superhero these days.

(Joseph Stronghold was actually still alive, retired, and suffering from Alzheimer's, which made him easy to keep convinced she really was his biological granddaughter.)

Once the bell rang, she stood quietly and began to pack her bag. There was no one to say bye to, or to make plans to sit with at lunch since she wasn't friends with anyone in this class. She was almost done when she noticed Mr. Reynolds gesturing for her to come up and speak to him. She nodded and hastened to shove the rest of her belongings into her bag. A couple of stragglers held her up on the way to his desk, just standing there taking up the space she needed to pass through. Glowering balefully when they wouldn't move when she politely asked them to once and then louder the second time, she eventually resorted to just pushing past them.

"How rude!" one of the displaced girls snorted.

She frowned. They were the rude ones. She'd asked them to move and they'd ignored her. As if making some room for her to pass them or even acknowledging someone was talking at them was too much for them to do. It bothered her, but she shook it off and focused on Mr. Reynolds who was still waiting on her. He smiled when she finally made it to his desk.

"Tenni, glad you could hang back to talk. You're usually out of here like a shot the minute my class is over. I can't be that horrible, can I?"

"No, not at all," Tenni was quick to deny, "History's really one of my favorite subjects so far. I just get really... hungry you know? So that's why I try to get to lunch so quick."

_I just get really hungry? _Could that have sounded any worse as an excuse? Usually she was a better liar than this. The truth was that she liked to be first out the door so she could be the one to pick the table for her and her friends at lunch. A table that had a good view of Warren Peace's table. God, it sounded pathetic just to think that even in the privacy of her own mind. As it was, she was internally groaning in disappointment over the fact that because she had to stay back and talk to Mr. Reynolds, it was likely that her friends would be picking a table far far away from the pyrotechnic.

She tried to sigh as unobtrusively as possible.

"I see. I work up a hell of an appetite myself during class too," Mr. Reynolds said, as if that atrocity Tenni tried to pass off as an explanation was worth believing, "Anyway, I assume you must want to know why I asked you to stay back?"

"Yes."

Yes, she really did want to know why he wanted to speak with her. She was mostly confident it couldn't be anything bad. What little homework assignments they'd already been assigned, she'd turned in on time with correct answers. Mom had even checked her papers as per her request. In class, she participated in discussions but made sure not to step on anyone's toes during debates. If anything, the minute someone with a dissenting opinion spoke up, she was quick to bow out and let other students fight over their points. So what was it Mr. Reynolds wanted? Tenni fought to keep any overt emotion off her face beyond mild curiosity, but he seemed to see through that in a way he hadn't been able to tell she'd been lying before.

"Now now. There's no need to be nervous. You're not in trouble. I'm not keeping you here to talk to you about anything bad. Just talk to you about something I found interesting."

He pulled something out of his desk drawer and placed in on the desktop between the two of them.

There, sitting on his desk, was the first assignment he'd given them, their introductory essay. His prompt had been for them to introduce themselves to him the way they'd want the world to know them. Tenni frowned. Why was he showing her the essay? She'd done the assignment and felt very sure she'd done it right. So why was he bring it up now?

"By the look on your face, I can tell that you don't understand why I want to talk to you about it. Why don't you look it over again one more time so you can refresh your memory on what you wrote?"

She did as he told her. It was one and a half pages, the minimum amount he'd expected doubled spaced. There were no corrections on her spelling or grammar. There were no notes on what she'd written. And there was no grade. She frowned again.

"I'm done."

"So can you tell me what you wrote?"

What she really wanted was to say no and tell him to just cut to the chase and tell her what he thought was wrong about her essay. But she swallowed down her frustration and impatience with his inability to get to the point and did as he said.

"I wrote that my name was Tenille Stronghold, age 14, daughter of Steve and Josie Stronghold, and sister of William Stronghold. My power is aquakinesis and I intend to be a responsible and upstanding hero. When my required time to spend as a hero is up, I intend to retire from the hero business and become a civilian," she paraphrased from her essay.

"You know what I found interesting about that?" he finally asked after a long silence.

"What?" Tenni said, letting out the breath she'd been holding since she'd finished telling him what her essay had been about.

Finally he was done beating around the bush.

"Nothing."

"Huh?" She blinked, her mouth almost falling open. "What?"

"I said nothing."

"Nothing?" she repeated, "What is nothing? What do you mean, nothing?"

"Nothing about what you just told me from your essay was interesting in the slightest. What interested me about your essay was that nothing about it was interesting. I could have looked up your profile in the school's student profile cabinet and learned as much."

"Aren't those supposed to be private?" she asked him, the beginnings of anger muted behind a wall of disbelief.

"Sure, but the point is that if I wanted to know that stuff about you, I could have just done that. What I really wanted was for my students to tell me who they thought they really were and who they wanted to be. All of your classmates managed to tell me who they were beyond what I could find in a profile. Some of them have dreams of being big league heroes, some want to follow in the footsteps of their parents," Tenni almost winced, "Some want to save the world a couple times. Now either the boring basic profile information really is who you are and want to be. Or maybe there's more to Tenille Stronghold than that. So tell me, which one is it? Who are you really Tenni?"

If she weren't so gob smacked, she'd probably be yelling at him for wasting her time. Really, _who are you_? What kind of question was that? She'd fulfilled the parameters of the assignment. Why did it matter that it wasn't interesting? He'd been teaching how long? After so many years of reading these pointless papers, how could any student be interesting to him unless they said they were an alien who'd been adopted by PETA members and raised to champion the animals of the world? (Okay, she'd been hanging out with both Layla _and_ Ethan too much lately if that was any indicator.) Frankly, she didn't want some superhero high school teacher knowing anything more about her than what she'd written. He didn't need to know and she wasn't obligated to tell any more than she had. Pressing her lips together she let her eyes meet his head on.

"I don't think there's anything extra to add," she answered him, her tone even, "I'm exactly who I described in the report. I'm sorry you think I'm such a boring, uninteresting person."

Mr. Reynolds sighed disappointed, as if he'd been expecting her to answer differently. Tenni couldn't pinpoint why exactly the sound of his disappointment suddenly made her feel so upset but it did.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, I suppose so," the teacher answered her, "You can keep your paper. You got an A, since you did the assignment and managed to string together intelligent sentences."

"Thank you," she said politely, her grip on the paper tightening a fraction, "I'll see you in class tomorrow."

With that she turned to leave. Just as she touched the doorknob, she heard him speak.

"I want you to try and think about what I asked Tenni. Maybe you don't want me to know who you are, but I think you should at least know yourself. There's nothing wrong with who you said you were and what you plan to do with your life, but there's a whole lot more out there for you. I just want you to know that."

What he was saying felt like an apology for being so intrusive earlier, but she was still too bothered everything to accept that. She turned the doorknob and walked out the door without saying anything or turning back.

* * *

Though not having to look at Mr. Reynolds or being faced with his bothersome questions anymore eased some of the tension that had built within her, last his words still chased her thoughts. Her paper was still clutched in her hand. She hadn't yet stopped to do something with it, wanting to put as much distance between herself and the teacher as she could. The girl couldn't understand why what he'd said was getting to her so bad. It all sounded like some mumbo jumbo cosmic wisdom about "knowing who she was" that he'd been trying to shove down her throat. It's not like he understood that being boring was exactly who she wanted to be and being interesting was the exact opposite.

The paper was still in her hand and now that her attention had landed on it again, she was debating whether to put it away in her backpack or wad it up and throw it away. It wasn't like she needed to hold onto it. And she didn't want to ever read it ever again. The teacher's entire reason to talk to her had been because of this stupid paper. Maybe she could just get rid of it so she didn't have to think about it again. It would show him. Show him not to try and force her to think about what he'd said.

She stopped.

And then with a sigh, she slipped the bag off her shoulder, unzipped it and shoved the offending piece of paper inside it.

Damn him.

Zipping the bag back up, she hefted it back onto her shoulder and continued heading for the cafeteria. She hadn't planned on getting held up by Mr. Reynolds and their little talk had lasted longer than expected. Knowing Will and Layla, they were probably having heart attacks in unison, imagining all the horrible things that could be happening to her while they weren't there to look out for her. They could be so silly sometimes.

Her thoughts were derailed when she thought about what had happened earlier with Lash.

Maybe their worry was valid sometimes.

Pushing it away, she focused on getting to the cafeteria. She saw more people the closer she got, and even spotted Gwen and the girl who usually hung around the student body president near Gwen's locker. The girl in pink had noticed her too and waved at her. It took her a moment to figure out that she was actually beckoning her over. Immediately, Tenni felt nervous. Maybe Gwen wanted her answer about joining the Homecoming Committee. She wasn't sure she was ready to make a decision yet.

Just as Gwen was about to say something, she was interrupted by a commotion coming from farther down the hall.

"Principal Powers! Principal Powers! _Prin_cipal Powers!" yelled a teacher as he went running through the hall, skidding into a wall.

Tenni recognized him as Mr. Boy, Will's Hero Support teacher (and lesser known as All American Boy, Steve's sidekick before he'd met Aunt Josie and they'd become unbeatable team, The Commander and Jetstream). She watched him recover from his unfortunate run in with the wall and disappear around the corner, still calling for Principal Powers. Confused, the aquakinetic looked at Gwen, who then looked at the other girl, who then looked down the hall in the direction Mr. Boy had come from.

"Let's go check it out," the cheerleader girl suggested to Gwen, "I bet it's a fight."

"If it is, I should break it up," Gwen said with a frown, though she followed the other girl's lead. She paused and then glanced back at Tenni who hadn't moved. "You coming Tenni?"

Jolted out of her uncertainty about whether to follow, Tenni scuttled after her. The sound of yelling and chanting was coming from up ahead, and Tenni was starting to get nervous. This was way to the cafeteria. Like the dark skinned girl had predicted, it sounded like a fight. If it was a fight, Will and her friends could be caught up in it. What if they got injured? She bit her lip and followed closely behind Gwen and the cheerleader. It was a smart move, since the cheerleader girl apparently had the ability to multiply herself and used her clones to aggressively push them through the crowd, into the cafeteria.

Tenni's heart started to jackhammer in her chest.

The first thing she saw the minute she entered the cafeteria was Warren's tall leathered form lobbing fireball after fireball at whoever had pissed him off. And by the look on his face, he was DEFCON Level 1 angry. Though she knew it was futile to hope, she really hoped that his unfortunate victim wasn't who she thought it was. Turning her head, she wanted to cry at the sight of who she saw there.

It was Will, arms up and cowering as he tried to dodge the fiery assault on him.

Suddenly, that anger she'd felt at Lash for humiliating her, the fury she'd stifled when Mr. Reynolds had criticized her paper, it all came rushing back. Any pre-existing thoughts or feelings she had about Warren were drowned in the roiling sea of rage sweeping through her. All she saw was her helpless little brother being attacked by some huge asshole.

And that asshole was going down.

Pushing past Gwen and the cheerleader, she made a mad dash at Warren, whose sole focus was Will at the moment. She realized she'd acted before thinking and tried to formulate a plan quickly. Warren was big. And Tenni was small, small even for a girl. She wouldn't hit him full blast with her powers; she preferred using those as little as possible for defensive purposes, like Layla did. So what did she do?

It was easy to not think though, and let her body do the rest of the work for her. Keeping her palms open, she used them to push Warren's wildly wind milling arms up sending the fire he'd been in the middle of throwing flying harmlessly into the air. With his arms up and his body unguarded, she planted her left foot, lifted her right as she pivoted on the left, and delivered a powerful kick to his solar plexus. The blow was reinforced the slightest by a blast of water released from her right foot upon contact with him. It sent him flying, crashing into the far wall.

He slid down it and didn't look like he was getting back up.

Guess those training sessions with Mom really were working out, she thought to herself.

The entire cafeteria went silent.

"Tenni!" she suddenly heard several people cry at once.

She turned and saw all of her friends and Will rushing to her, all smiles. But then they stopped, all of them except Will, who kept running at her, screaming her name. That's when she felt the sudden heat and pain burst on her shoulder. It threw her to her knees. Will was at her side in the next moment, crouching as he held her. Shaking from the pain, she put her hand on her injured shoulder, throwing cold off of it to soothe the burn she felt there. Though it hurt, she turned her head the entire way around to see what had happened.

And there Warren stood, looking completely unharmed and somehow even angrier than he had been earlier.

"Can't even fight your own battles, you have to get a girl to fight them for you?" the pyrokinetic jeered at her and Will, "Pathetic. You're both pathetic. It'll take more than that to keep me down."

His arm lifted, fireball ready, and he threw it with perfect aim at them. Will pushed her one way and threw himself in the other direction. Tenni tried to land steadily, but the minute she put pressure on her injured arm, it gave and she face planted into the cafeteria floor. Her head swam as she used her other arm to push herself up again. She looked forward and saw Warren storming at her arms over head, a massive fireball formed between them.

"No so tough now that you don't have the element of surprise anymore, are you?"

_Shit._

Whether Warren deemed her a bigger threat and was moving to take out as quickly as possible or just saw her as weak, easy pickings, he was coming for her first. Her pain was making control over her power hard to grasp. Still she tried, throwing up her good arm, hoping it would summon up a decent ice shield in time.

She needn't have worried about that though.

"**LEAVE HER ALONE!**"

From her left, she saw Will charge Warren. He got the taller boy around his midsection and heaved him up. Tenni could barely believe her eyes as her Will, who had trouble lifting even her sometimes, held the struggling pyrokinetic over his head like he weighed nothing and threw him into the wall Tenni had just kicked the hothead into earlier. Only this time, Warren went through that wall.

"Tenni, you okay back there?" Will called to her, though he didn't turn his back on the hole in the wall Warren had gone through.

The "yeah" she was about to say got caught on her tongue as she felt a wave of dizziness crash over her again.

"Not really," she finally slurred out.

She didn't think that she'd hit her head hard enough for a concussion, but her shoulder was starting to hurt like a bitch now that the adrenaline was wearing off. This was something else. Shock. _This is shock_, she thought to herself.

Will glanced back for a second, his eyes crazed with worry

"Layla!"

"On it!" Tenni heard her respond.

Then she heard footsteps and saw Ethan on one side of her and Zach on the other. She felt them put arms under her own and begin to lift her. The movement hurt her shoulder.

"Don't worry Tenni," she heard someone, Magenta, say to her, "We're here. We're taking you to the nurse's office. Warren won't be able to get you there."

"Warren...?" Tenni said, her brain feeling so wooly, it was hard to make sense of what the other girl was saying to her, "Will... Will..."

"Don't worry about Will. You protected him and now it's his turn to protect you. Try to stay with me Tenni. You could be concussed."

She wanted to correct her. She was in shock. Not concussed.

"Will..."

Her head lolled onto Ethan's shoulder.

"Come on Tenni! Stay awake. You gotta stay awake!"

"Yo Ten, now's not the time to be sleepin'! Ten!"

"Tenni! Tenni! _Tenni!_"

"Will…"

* * *

**Chapter Three: Boiling Point** - End

* * *

Nana: Some discussion on how this chapter is similar and different from the way the original story handled this stuff. The defending Ron was swapped with plain old harassment of Tenni by Lash. It was tough for me to write (any harassment, especially harassment that is borderline or full on sexually driven, drives me crazy, I hate it). But I felt I needed more going on between Tenni and Lash, and it created a reason for Gwen to reach out to her. The shitty dream sequence stuff was thrown out and replaced with a talk with Mr. Reynolds, who is a vastly different character and more important plotwise in this rewrite compared to his PULaI counterpart. You'll see how important farther down the road. And the fight was different too. I mentioned in the last story how Josie trained Tenni in hand-to-hand combat but never worked it into the story. This time, I wanted to give you guys a little taste of tough kick ass Tenni, though as you see, she makes the biggest mistake anyone ever does in a fight: turning your back on an opponent who you're not 100 percent sure is down. Being arrogant and distracted cost her the fight. I feel confident about this chapter. Thanks for reading! And please, _please, _review. I love them.

And like I asked last chapter: HELP. BETA PLS?

*Disclaimer: I don't own the name "Major Victory". I borrowed it from DR. COFFIN's story "Namesake". I thought it was a very fitting name for the first generation hero of the Stronghold family.

* * *

Next Installment: 

Chapter Four: Cold War


	5. Chapter Four: Cold War

**Chapter Four: Cold War**

* * *

_We've got to hold on ready or not_  
_You live for the fight when it's all that you've got_

Livin' on a Prayer, Bon Jovi

* * *

It was only when the pain began to fade that Tenni was able to ease out of the not quite awake, not quite asleep limbo she'd been in. She opted for sleep first, and when she woke up, she was surprised to realize she was in her own bedroom when she recognized the glow in the dark star decoration she'd put on her ceiling two years ago. How had she gotten there? The last thing she remembered was passing out in the cafeteria.

Remembering why she'd passed out brought the entire day back. The fight. Warren. Will.

"Will!" Tenni shouted, jack-knifing off the bed, only to wince with regret a moment later when her shoulder burn began to hurt from the sudden movement.

"Sweetie, you need to calm down and lay back," she heard someone say as she felt hands pushing her slowly back down.

It took only a moment to figure out that the person was her Mom.

"Mom?"

"Oh Tenni." She felt the hands stroking her face and hair now. "That was so reckless of you. So brave and reckless."

"Mom, how did I get home?"

"I got a call from the secretary at Sky High informing me that my son was sent to detention for fighting in school and that my daughter had been brought, unconscious, to the nurse's office suffering severe burns," her mom answered in clipped tones, her lips pinched in distaste, "I flew there immediately and brought you home the minute the nurse said it was safe to move you."

"Detention?" Tenni gaped, letting her immediate concern for Will's wellbeing fall to the wayside, knowing that if he had been sent to detention he was probably okay, "How could he have been given a detention when Warren started the fight? All Will did was run for cover."

"The property damage bills we were sent tell a different story," Josie quipped back dryly.

"What, did Warren throw Will through a wall and school decided to charge us for it?" the girl snapped sarcastically, though she was parts dumbstruck and furious at the idea that maybe it was true.

"It was the opposite actually. Will threw that Warren boy through a wall. And into a lot of other things too."

And that was when Tenni started to remember more of what she'd forgotten. How Will had indeed picked up and thrown Warren through a wall. She'd been on the edge of consciousness then, which was why she'd thought she'd hallucinated things and had dismissed it. Now it was apparent that it wasn't a hallucination. Huh. Nurse Spex had been right.

"He got his powers?" she asked anyway, and got her confirmation in Josie's proud nod.

"Even if I'm upset that he got in trouble today, I can't say I'm not happy about that. He got your dad's super strength after all. I am a little disappointed his genetics didn't see fit to tip more to my side and give him flight." She heaved a mock sigh before smiling. "Will's always favored Steve more, looks wise and now powers wise as well. At least you look like me." Her eyes took in Tenni's features. "You remind me so much of her."

The girl fought the urge to stiffen at the mention of her biological mother. She tried, really tried, to always be considerate of Josie, her mom now, concerning her other mother. Her mother was Josie's sister after all, and while it was well and good to treat her with disdain in her own mind, it actually hurt Josie when she said bad things about her mother.

Distractedly, she thought about what Josie had said. Tenni had ended up looking more and more like her mother as she got older. She'd pretty much gotten all of her features. Last but not least, there was also the fact that she'd gotten her mother's powers as well.

There wasn't any conclusive proof in scientific hero circles that the children of powered individuals always got the same power as their parents. Layla was a good example of the lack of evidence and thrown around theories. Where her mother communed with animals, Layla instead controlled plants. However, an argument could have been made that both powers were nature based and therefore Layla's power could just be a variant of her mother's. So that was where Tenni's own problem lay. Even if it wasn't proven that powers weren't directly inherited from the parents, most people believed it was true. Anyone who knew the Strongholds would notice how odd it was that Tenni was an aquakinetic with a super strong father and a flying mother. If they knew about Josie being Tenni's mother's twin, they could go two ways with that information.

They could, best case scenario, rationalize it. Flying could be considered a type of aerokinesis and therefore based in elemental power types like aquakinesis was. Added to the fact that Josie and her mother had been twins, it wasn't that crazy a jump in logic to assume that aquakinesis could manifest in a child not directly related to the aquakinetic.

However there were people would assume the worst. The truth. People, unfortunately, like Coach Boomer. The first day, it was obvious Boomer fully believed in direct inheritance. He'd assumed it of both her and Will, and then both of them had turned out to be anomalies, her with her aquakinesis and Will with his no powers. Will not being what he'd expected had probably thrown off Boomer's suspicions about her for a while but that was no longer the case now that Will had awakened his super strength.

Though Boomer had already been acting suspicious. If she'd been unsure about it during power placement, P.E. class had gotten rid of any uncertainty. There was an obvious bias in the way he treated her and she was dismayed to figure out that he treated Warren in a similar fashion, just a little worse. He made disparaging remarks aimed at her parentage that could in no way be meant towards Steve and Josie. He constantly set her up to fail during physical activity drills. Then there were the sneers he didn't bother doing behind her back.

It might have been easy to tell Steve and Josie about it. But how could she? Boomer probably expected it. Knew that if she told them, Steve especially, they'd blow their tops at him. All Boomer would have to do at that point was let her secret slip and everybody in the school, from the freshmen, to the seniors, to the school staff, would know about her.

She'd be the second coming of Warren Peace at Sky High.

Shuddering, she pushed that horrible line of thought away. It bothered her that the lower she got, the more she fixated she got on things like her mother and Warren. Josie hadn't meant to upset her with the passing mention of her mother. Even if the last thing Tenni wanted was to be compared to a woman she hated, this was Josie. If it was Josie, she could put up with it. So she forced a smile, taking Josie's hand and asked her how her day had been. Josie didn't seem completely fooled by the change of topic, but let it go.

* * *

Tenni had fallen asleep mid-conversation and ended up being gently woken up by Layla and Will for school the next morning. She was disturbed to see in how badly her family and friend had taken her injury at the hands of Warren Peace. Layla always seemed to be hovering on the side of her injured shoulder, trying to be helpful since Tenni a decreased range of movement with that arm. It was sweet, but Tenni wasn't crippled. Her arm was doing much better than it had been yesterday. One perk of her ability was that when properly applied, it mildly accelerated healing.

(She'd never admit that her inspiration for trying out healing applications of her power had come from a children's cartoon of all things.)

So instead of her shoulder being a pulsating, glaring red mess of a blister, it was a slightly smaller, somewhat oozing blister. At least she was healing. Give it a week and she'd be all better. Mostly.

Her mom and dad had both seemed to cycle between relief that she was okay and outrage at her injury. It took multiple guilt trips and distraction tactics to put them off trying to sue Warren for assaulting her and Will. Neither she nor Will actually wanted to press charges, so she wanted them to drop it. However, she let them discuss making a formal complaint against the school for negligence.

In her opinion, Will getting attacked by Warren like that never would have happened if a member of the faculty who could actually handle the situation had been there at the start to break it up. She liked Will and her friends' sweet if a little timid hero support teacher well enough, but Mr. Boy had not been up to the task of stopping Warren on a rampage. It wasn't Mr. Boy's fault either, but Principal Powers. They were teenagers for Pete's sake! Of course they were going to get into fights and teenagers with super powers were going to be even more destructive and dangerous than normal ones were. If they'd had anyone else there, even Coach Boomer, none of that would have had to happen. It had been a miracle that Will had woken up his super strength when he did because Tenni was pretty sure she would've fared worse than the shoulder burn if she'd gotten a fireball to the face.

That finally brought her to Will, who had been quiet and distracted all morning. She'd thought that he'd just been subdued after the supposed lecture he'd gotten from dad the night previously. After observing a moment of interaction between Will and Dad, it was easy to discern that there had been no lecture at all. Will would have been more awkward around Dad in that case. Which meant that there was something else bothering him. Something that probably had to do with her, if the tortured look he got on his face whenever his eyes lingered on her shoulder for too long was any indication.

There was no making it better, as she soon found out.

"I swear I'm fine," Tenni tried to reassure him as they walked to the bus.

Will just continued to brood as he followed her and Layla. She shot a pleading glance at the redhead, but only got an apologetic look. The fact that Layla felt guilty too didn't help. Tenni wanted to pull her hair out at how stupid both her brother and her friend were being. Will had done enough saving her when he had. And what _could _Layla have done? Even if her power had battle applications, Warren would have been the worst person for her to fight ever. Tenni herself should've done better, all things considered. Aquakinetics were the ideal defense against a pyrokinetic. It irked her that one mistake cost her the fight. Never had she considered herself to be weak until now. Despite her fair control of her power and all the training she did with mom, she couldn't protect her brother the one time she tried to be an actual hero.

Oh great. She was brooding now too.

In a less than welcome turn of events, she found herself sitting next to Ethan of all people. Layla was sitting with Will like she always did while Magenta for some reason was sitting with Zach and seemed to be having an actual conversation with him. Tenni stopped herself from frowning, not wanting to give Ethan the impression she didn't want to sit next to him. It wasn't that she had problems with him. It was just...

"Morning," she said hesitating at the edge of the seat but not sitting down.

"G-good morning," Ethan returned, fidgeting and reaching up to adjust his glasses with hands.

For a minute, she waited for him to offer the seat. When he didn't she cleared her throat and asked.

"Oh! Sorry, of course you can sit with me!" he exclaimed, he cheeks darkening as he blushed.

"Thanks."

They fell into an uncomfortable silence. Tenni wanted to say something, but Ethan was really the one person she couldn't talk to in her group of friends. Will and Layla had always been easy. With Zach and Magenta, Zach talked so much, and Magenta was okay with not talking, so Tenni didn't need to talk to either of them. Ethan was difficult. He was painfully shy when not in nerd-acquiring-knowledge mode. Tenni had also gotten the sense that she put him off somehow. She knew she wasn't the most friendly person in Sky High, but she couldn't be that bad, could she?

"Um..."

Her head snapped in his direction the minute she heard him start to speak. Unfortunately, the sudden movement had spooked him and he withdrew further into his side of the bus seat. Cringing, she tried to swap her hyper-alertness for patience to encourage him to speak. It seemed like a lost cause however. He was already desperately looking away from her and out the window. She grit her teeth and threw her head back into the seat. Even sitting with Zach would have been better than this. He'd talk and she'd just tell him to shut up and not feel bad about it. He'd probably keep talking, but she'd developed the fine art of tuning the sound of idiot out. Saying shut up was really only done by habit now.

Just as she was about to close her eyes and pretend to be asleep for the rest of the ride, she heard Ethan speak up once more.

"Tenni?" he said, his voice hitching funnily.

"Yeah Ethan?" she acknowledged slowly.

"Yesterday," he spoke again, more firmly this time though, "The fight with Warren?"

Stopping her eyes from narrowing was a test of will. Ethan was being unusually sensitive to her every move, gesture and expression. One out of place twitch of the lip or eye would probably set him off again. She was dying of curiosity, wanting to know just what Ethan had to say to her that he would actually brave initiating conversation. Even if the topic of conversation seemed to be on one of the few topics she was really loath to discuss right now.

"Yeah?" she eventually got out, stopping a stream of other overly enthusiastic responses that had tried to jockey for first spot out of her mouth.

"It's just... You didn't hesitate at all..." he murmured, "Warren's really scary. I mean, every day he glares you and Will down in the cafeteria and he proved yesterday that all those rumors about him being dangerous are true. He was really trying to hurt you and Will. And I..." he swallowed dryly, "I thought for a second there I might've tried to stand up to him. Tried to help Will. But I lost my nerve. I couldn't do it. What could I possibly do to a guy like Warren?" He laughed strangely to himself. "Melt and then hope he manages to slip on me and fall and pray to God that hits his head and knocks himself unconscious in the process."

Tenni's mouth fell open in horror.

"No!" she was unable to stop herself from sputtering out.

"What?" Ethan stared at her with wide eyes.

"Not you too!" the girl groaned, scrubbing her face with her hands.

"What?" Ethan asked again, sounding even more confused.

"The guilt thing!" Tenni exploded, before shrinking in unison with him when they both suddenly had several sets of eyes boring into them.

"I don't understand..." Ethan whispered to her.

"My brother and Layla," Tenni responded with a shade of bitterness, "And now you too. I mean, I'm mad at myself for screwing up back there, but Will and I both got out of it alright. That's what's important."

"I just hated how useless I was." His tone mirrored her own. "How useless I am."

"Hey, no doing that," Tenni rushed, putting a hand on his shoulder in spite of the mounting awkwardness she was feeling, "We're not heroes yet. We're all still learning. My mom's always told me that you don't go rushing into a hostile situation if you can't do anything help. And once again, look at what I did yesterday. Really did not make that situation better even though I have powers that should have given me an advantage over Warren and I train with my mom in hand to hand every weekend."

"You mean you learn how to fight outside of school?"

"Yeah. Mom got Will and I training together to get us ready for Sky High. Will doesn't take it that seriously but I like it. What if I'm in a situation where I can't use my power because I'll blow my cover? I'll have something to fall back on." She noticed his raised eyebrows. "What?"

"You really take being a hero seriously, don't you?"

"It's not that. Not really. I just don't want to make mistakes. Civilians die when heroes make mistakes." Blech. That sounded disgustingly textbook. "For however long I'm going to be a hero, I'm going to do it right."

"That's..." he paused, "That's really cool. I think you're going to be a really great hero some day."

Though she doubted that, she nodded anyway.

"Thanks. I think if you trained, you could be a really great hero too."

"But I'm a sidekick," he muttered sullenly.

"So?" Tenni said, "I've listened in on what they're teaching you in Hero Support. I think it's crap. If I'm going to be out fighting and I need support, I expect my support to be able to think for themselves and not just leave all the fighting to me." She shook his shoulder. "So if you train hard, you can be a good support hero. And if you train even harder, you can even be a hero in your own right without any special powers. Like Batman. Batman's awesome right?"

_Batman's awesome, right_? Why wasn't anyone stopping her from saying these things?

Her thought process was interrupted as the bus rocked letting her know they'd arrived at Sky High. She grabbed her bag and slid over to Magenta, who at least had the decency to wait for her so they could walk into school together. From the apologetic and harassed expression splashed on her face, Tenni figured that sitting with Zach on the bus today had not been something Magenta had done willingly. The two of them walked ahead of the group, though Tenni made sure that it wasn't too far. Just because Will had magically acquired powers didn't mean he and the others didn't still need looking after.

To her surprise, Ethan had sped up a bit to catch up to her and Magenta and was quietly walking beside her. She glanced over at him and he gave her a shy smile that she made herself return. Her mouth felt like it was making less of a smile and more of odd squiggle shape. Still, Ethan looked pleased, so Tenni figured she'd done the right thing and just kept walking, flanked by her purple and orange friends.

* * *

People kept on staring at her. If she thought it was bad how her own friends were being, it was worse how the entire school was in turn. It was a like the beginning of a nightmare. The only good thing was that all of the attention seemed to be sympathetic and well wishing. It seemed like everywhere she went, people talking to her, touching her. Eugh. If they kept touching her, someone was going to lose a hand to frostbite. Though she had to admit, Gwen's feather light touch on her elbow and heartfelt concern was okay. It made her stomach flutter a bit in pleasure, actually.

Of course, she hadn't even been given time to thank Gwen for that concern because suddenly, Will was being pushed into the class. Mr. Medulla had immediately set him up with Tenni and, like it was a huge inconvenience, told them that Gwen was to work with them for a week or two longer to suitably catch Will up.

"Will?" Tenni poked him in the side once Medulla swept away.

"Huh?"

She glanced to her left and saw that his attention had been completely eaten up by Gwen. Her lips tugged down at the corners. A nasty part of her wondered if this was what it felt like to be Layla whenever Will was close enough to be in Gwen's orbit. Quickly, she shook away that thought and elbowed him this time.

"Uh, yeah?"

Not really the satisfactory response she wanted, but it was better.

"They moved you into this class?"

"Yeah," he replied, nodding slowly.

"Is that normal?"

"Yes," she heard from over her shoulder. Turning, she saw Gwen smiling patiently at the both of them, "Whenever a hero support student shows aptitude for being a hero, they are moved up to the hero track. Although, it's usually only for students who are sorted incorrectly in Power Placement or those who unlock latent abilities after the fact that are... more suited for combat."

There was something about the way Gwen said that. It was strange. Tenni didn't know what to think about it. Gwen probably just disliked the way Power Placement worked as much as she and Layla did. She certainly didn't judge the older girl for that.

"So Will's latent super strength qualified him for that option."

"Pretty much." Gwen stopped to lean around Tenni and shoot a mega-watt smile at Will. "Hi by the way. Sorry for not introducing myself earlier, but I'm Gwen Grayson."

"I know." Will's eyes went wide. "I mean, I know 'cause you're the school president and you did orientation for freshman and then Mr. Medulla introduced you and-" He stopped himself mid-stammer, his cheeks flushed in embarrassment. "I'm Will. Will Stronghold."

"I know," Gwen said, sounding smoother with a touch of amusement, "Tenni's been telling me all about you. Congratulations on the promotion to hero. You're already well on your way with how heroic you were saving your sister yesterday."

Will's embarrassment and pleasure and her congratulations dulled at the mention of the events from the previous day. Tenni sighed heavily. While she wasn't sure she liked Will getting more enamored with her lab partner - friend? - in consideration for Layla, she'd prefer it if normal conversation with the other girl didn't break Will. They had to work together to get the lab done after all.

"Anyway, I think we should be getting to work, right?" Tenni said loudly to snap the two out of it, "Will, you and I can build whatever this thing is and you can walk us through it, right Gwen?"

"Y-yeah."

"Of course."

The rest of the class passed fine. Medulla had been mildly suspicious of how well they'd done, shooting a warning look at the older girl who just batted her lashes and pouted innocently at him.

Tenni could only shake her head as that pout laid waste to every male in a five foot radius. She needed to work on Will's functionality around Gwen if this was any indication of how things were going to be.

"Hey Gwen, maybe you should tutor Will for a while, show him the ropes of the class?" Tenni suggested, causing Will and Gwen to blink at her, "I'd do it myself, but I think you'd be better since this is your element as a technopath."

"That's a great idea. I was about to suggest it myself actually."

"Really?" Will blurted out, "You wouldn't mind? You know, spending time with me?"

"It's no problem at all," she assured him, "I'd love spending time with you."

Judging by the look on Will's face, he'd just died and gone to teenage boy heaven. Tenni definitely owed Layla a couple Paper Lantern dates and a vegan cake for doing this.

The class soon ended and Gwen slipped off to her next class. Will had decided walk with Tenni to class since after perusing his schedule, they had figured out that it was pretty much identical to hers. He looped his arm with hers, grinning so wide she wondered if he was hurting himself.

"_Tenni_, _Tenni_, _Tenni_," he sing-songed to her, "You are the bestest sister in the world and I am going to buy you something nice with my next allowance because you totally deserve it!"

Oh man. Layla was going to _kill _her for this.

* * *

It was nice having Will to sit next to during class. And walk with during passing period and to lunch. Even if having him around drew other people like flies to their little corner of the room, she didn't mind so much. Though she did roll her eyes internally at how people who had never been very interested in her or polite to her were now starting to kiss up. Was that really what one cafeteria fight and a brother with super strength did for your social standing?

Things got weird once they hit the cafeteria however. Gwen had flagged them down the minute she'd seen them. Like an eager puppy, Will had gone ambling off in her direction. Tenni had decided to wait for the others. There was no need to try and pick a table for Warren watching. He wasn't even in the cafeteria today and even if he was, she had no desire to see him today. Layla and the others had greeted her enthusiastically and once they had their food, Tenni guided them over to where Will and Gwen were.

Tenni tried to pretend she didn't see Layla's face crumple, all expression shutting down before a slapdash plastic smile quickly took its place on her features.

"Will. Sitting with Gwen Grayson?" Magenta raised an eyebrow.

"Man aims high. Gotta give him that."

The minute they got to Gwen and Will's table, however, the cheer faded when all the seats had been filled. The shut out might not have been so obvious if not for the fact that half of those seats were occupied by copies of the cheerleader girl, all of them sneering at Layla and the others.

"Sorry. All full," the girl chirped, her words disgustingly saccharine.

Tenni couldn't help but gape at the audacity. She looked to Will hoping he'd say something, but felt her stomach drop when Will just sat there, not saying anything. Her faith in humanity was restored a fraction when at least Gwen seemed upset and was beginning to scold the cheerleader.

"That's okay!" Layla said suddenly, her eyes darting away and back again, "Uh, I think I see an empty table over there. Come on guys."

She started tugging and herding the others over to whatever table she'd supposedly spotted. Tenni couldn't bear to see the dejected slump of their shoulders as they shuffled away. It wasn't long before she realized she was still standing there with her lunch tray in front of the popular kids' table. Will couldn't meet her eyes and Gwen was looking up at her apologetically.

"I'm sorry about that. Penny tends to scare people off." She shot another silent warning at the girl, Penny. Gwen turned back to her. "You can still sit with us. I promise she won't bite this time."

Gwen was almost charming enough to sell the invitation.

Almost.

"Sorry Gwen," Tenni apologized, "I'm gonna have to pass this time. It's gotten a bit too crowded at this table for my liking."

With one last pointed look at Penny, she turned on her heel and went to go after the others.

"Tenni?"

Layla stared at her, confused. They all did.

"Can I sit?"

"But what about them?"

"What about them? I want to sit with you guys." She inclined her head at the bench. "So can I sit?"

The way they looked like they couldn't believe she'd actually chosen to sit with them over the popular kids hurt.

"Here," Ethan said first, scooting over so the spot between him and Zach was clear.

"Thanks."

They were silent as she sat. All of them were still thrown by the confrontation at the other table. Zach wasn't his usual boisterous self and it took a lot to get him down. Still, he'd managed a fond hair ruffling that Tenni allowed with minimal griping. It had served its purpose in getting the others to smile some at Zach's and her antics. Once Magenta got snarking again, they'd probably all be alright again.

When they were distracted, Tenni took the opportunity to sneak a peek at Will, whose back was turned to her. Her gaze moved past him and she froze when she caught Warren staring back at her.

What was he thinking? She wished she knew, but Tenni had learned the hard way that she would never know what to expect from him.

What had happened yesterday, that had hurt more than just physically. For a brief moment, she'd actually felt... betrayed? Why? Why did she expect anything other than his absolute hatred for her and Will? She didn't know him. Even with all her watching and speculating about his character from the small clues she found here and there, she'd never once actually properly met him or had a single conversation with him. Their nonexistent relationship extended to all of the weird staring at each other from across the room and the one time she'd run into him in the hall.

She'd thought after yesterday, all of this dancing around each other was over. He'd made himself pretty clear about his feelings when he burned her. And she'd been sure he'd gotten the picture when she kicked him into a wall.

So why were they still doing this?

Whipping her head away, she tried to focus on her food and the stilted yet progressively more natural conversation passing between her friends. If she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Warren hadn't gone back to flipping through his comic book and was still staring at her, she tried to think nothing of it.

* * *

Her locker was close to Magenta, Zach and Ethan's lockers so she'd gone with them when they'd broken off with Layla who had to go to her own locker around the corner. Magenta had hurried off saying she needed to talk to her teacher about a question on her homework. That left her with Zach and Ethan who were playing with the nerf football Zach kept stashed in his locker. They even tried to get her into the game, but with her selective poor hand eye coordination when it came to trying to catch things thrown at her, it was better she stayed out of it.

Zach had just put away the ball when out of nowhere he was blindsided and shoved into his own locker by large meaty hands.

"What the-!" Zach exclaimed as he struggled.

"Zach!" Tenni cried, going to dislodge his assailant when suddenly something wrapped around her body, pinning her arms to her side.

Zach yelled her name. She looked down at what had tied her up. The sight of stripes had her reacting before she'd even realized it.

"Let me go!" Her powers flared and she was enveloped in a roiling icy mist.

She heard Lash gasp and stumble back in surprise. Taking advantage of that, she turned to Ethan.

"Get help."

With a short nod, he went running down the hall. She turned her attention back to the two thugs that had attacked her and Zach, backing up a couple steps so she put them both in her line of sight. Lash was shivering violently against a set of lockers. Speed still had his hands on Zach, but his eyes were now darting nervously between her and Lash. Tenni advanced on him.

"Let Zach go," she ordered, she held up her hands so he could see the cold rolling off of them.

She saw the hand before it landed on her injured shoulder. Pain rippled through her from that point but she didn't let it distract her. Instead, she calmly gripped Lash's wrist and started squeezing.

"Did you know," she spoke low as her gaze slid over to Lash who was panting and clawing at his arm, "Once frozen, meat and bones can shatter with the right application of pressure?" Her chin tipped up, her eyelids shuttered. "Would you like me to shatter this?"

His fingers immediately released her shoulder. She didn't let her relief show on her face. She didn't let go of his wrist either, though she eased up her hold and powers the slightest. Both Lash and Speed looked pretty scared and she made a note to thank Mr. Medulla for that fun fact.

"Tenni!" she heard someone call from behind her.

Though she wanted to, she stopped herself from taking her eyes off them. She wasn't making that mistake again. Besides, she knew exactly who it was showing up.

"Will."

"Tenni, did these jerks do anything to you?" she heard him ask her, barely restrained fury in his voice.

"Yeah, but I've got it mostly handled." Lash's flinch when she none too gently relinquished his arm made a thrum of satisfaction pulse through her.

Revenge really was best served cold.

Will shot Speed a glare which quickly had the larger boy pushing Zach back over to them.

"Not so tough when my crew's around, are you?" Zach shot off at the bullies.

A chuckled bubbled up in Tenni's chest, even as she shook her head at Zach's utter corniness.

"You Stronghold's must think you're so big and bad now, huh?" Lash glared at the siblings as he held his wrist.

They both stared Lash and Speed down with defiance.

"You shouldn't act so cocky, just 'cause you two have a famous dad," Speed jeered, "Why don't we settle this in P.E. with a game of Save the Citizen?"

The two siblings shared a look. Even if Will was new to his powers and Tenni had an injury, they could probably take the jerks if they worked together. Mom ran them through enough team drills that they were confident in their teamwork. Besides, they were both done letting these guys walk all over them and their friends. It was time for payback.

"We're in," Will said for the both of them, "If we win though, you have to lay off the sidekicks for the rest of the year."

"Well, if that's the case, then if we win," Lash smirked, "We get to dunk your geeky sidekicks' heads in the toilet for the rest of the year."

"Won't happen." Tenni's grin stretched wide. "Cause we're going to win."

"Like I said earlier." Speed threw an arm over Lash's shoulder as they walked away. "Don't act so cocky."

"Are you two crazy?" Layla erupted from behind them once the bullies were out of earshot, "No freshman's ever won Save the Citizen! And those two are undefeated! And neither of you are fit to fight them either!"

Tenni noticed how pale Zach and Ethan had gone.

"Guys, don't worry. Will and I will win. We work well together."

They still seemed worried, but they nodded.

"But Tenni..." Layla tugged helplessly on her braid.

"Tenni's right." Will placed a hand on her arm and squeezed it. "We got this."

"Okay," she finally said.

It was hard to think about anything but the upcoming match after that. Tenni hadn't expected the chance to redeem herself after yesterday's mess so soon. She might have preferred it to have been after her shoulder was fully healed, but beggars couldn't choosers. If she didn't use that arm so much, it shouldn't hurt that bad or set her healing back too much. She smirked to herself. The bullies would probably avoid trying to take advantage of her shoulder after her demonstration in the hall.

* * *

Once they got to P.E., Lash and Speed didn't call her and Will out immediately. They tried to play to their normal intimidation tactics, destroying Julian Ramirez and Katherine Hamilton first. They were sophmore heroes with super jumping and super breath as their powers respectively. Individually, they weren't so bad, but Lash and Speed had good teamwork. Ramirez wasn't taking any risks, playing it safe and jumping out of the way if Speed or Lash got too close. Hamilton was too aggressive, blowing her powerful gusts all over the arena indiscriminately. More than once, she'd thrown Ramirez into the barriers on accident. It all ended when Lash and Speed double teamed them, Lash rounding them up and Speed hitting them so hard, they went flying into the garbage can prop.

The timer went off and the shredder wrecked the citizen mannequin.

In unison, Will and Tenni's backs straightened. This was probably it.

"Alright, next round," Boomer announced, "Speed, Lash, want to be heroes or villains?"

"Villains."

"Ooh, there's a surprise," Boomer remarked sarcastically reviewing his clipboard, "Alright, who do you want to beat next?"

"We'll take little boy Stronghold and-" Speed started.

"Wait up," Lash interrupted him, "I got a better idea." He shot Tenni an evil look. "And we pick Peace."

"What?" Tenni and Will cried as one.

The plan was for her and Will to fight them. That was the only way it could've worked. She latched onto Will's arm seeing her own panic painted across his face.

"Are you going to be okay?"

"I don't think so." His breathing got faster, but he tried for a grin for her sake.

She took a breath of her own. "Okay, listen to me. You're going to go out there and try your damn hardest to win for Ethan and Zach. You're stronger than they are." Will grunted. "You are. But you have to fight smart. You watch all of Dad's fights. Use what you've seen if you can. Don't let Lash get his arms around you. Try to trip Speed up. And for Pete's sake, stay the hell out of Warren's way. You don't need him trying to kill you again in the middle of the match."

"Yeah."

"Get a move on Stronghold, we don't have all day!" Boomer yelled from his perch.

"Good luck."

She thumped him back for good measure.

"Definitely gonna need it," Will said as he stood and went to go suit up.

"We're doomed aren't we?" Ethan asked after Will had left.

"Try to have some faith."

For the second time that day, her attention was drawn to Warren. He was already suited up and was standing stiffly on the other side of the arena from Lash and Speed. When he noticed her looking at him, he caught her eyes. Then he glanced at Lash and Speed, before his eyes went back to hers and he cocked his head. If it had been anyone else, she might have scoffed and ignored them. Still, if she was reading him right, he was actually asking her what to do about the thugs.

Regarding him carefully, she thought it over a while before internally shrugging. Even if she didn't know where she stood with him, whether he hated her or she hated him, it had nothing to do with this.

Tenni punched a fist into her other hand and then jabbed a finger at Lash and Speed.

The feral smile he shot her in return made a shiver run up her spine.

Game on.

* * *

**Chapter Four: Cold War** - End

* * *

Nana: This chapter was kind of neat to write. There's just so much different here. And I admit to dropping a couple nerd bombs here and there. The good thing was Tenni had at least one moment to try and be a bamf. The stuff about power inheritance is made up. I think I have an idea about a beta, but I need to talk to them. Still, if you're interested, don't be shy. I could do with more than one beta.

_Things that are different than the original: _There is no Warren yells at Tenni, no Tenni crying into Will's shoulder, and no Warren and Tenni acting out the Balcony scene of Romeo and Juliet like they are cliches. In the last one, I hinted Boomer was on to her, but never went anywhere with it. Now I have, with him actively antagonizing her. There's also more Tenni bonds with her Hero Support friends. Finally, the hall fight. Lash is sort of evolving into this genuinely evil dick, and it's starting to make me wonder if I should skip the Tenni somehow befriending him arc. I don't know. We'll see in the next chapter. That's where I have to make a decision about that.

* * *

Next Installment:

Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction


	6. Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction

**Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction**

* * *

_With your feet on the air and you head on the ground  
Try this trick and spin it, yeah  
Your head will collapse  
But there's nothing in it  
And you'll ask yourself  
_

_Where is my mind?_

Where Is My Mind?, Pixies

* * *

The human brain starts shutting down after three minutes of oxygen deprivation.

It dies after six.

Tenni knew these things. She had a good memory for the morbid factoids Medulla liked to drop during Mad Science. However, morbid factoids really weren't doing her any good. In fact, all it was doing was making her more aware of how useless she was right now.

Warren was suffocating.

Warren was dying.

She looked to her left. She looked to her right. No one was doing anything. Why wasn't anyone doing anything?

The one thought that really stuck out in her mind, though, was-

_Why am_ I_ not doing anything?_

The battle had been going, not well, but it had been looking up when Will had pulled out Dad's signature seismic punch. It had shut down Lash and Speed's strong start, and it had given Tenni hope that Will and Warren would actually win this.

And then Speed had started in on Warren.

There were barriers set up around the combatants so the audience would be safe. They were meant to be pretty much everything-proof based on the abridged safety lecture Boomer gave them before jumping into the first Save the Citizen class. Trying to fight her way through one of them would be futile. But going through it wasn't the only way to get to the other side. The barrier wasn't that high. She had powers for a reason, and there were a million different ways she could put herself over it.

Just as she committed herself to marching over, making herself an ice ladder to get over the barrier, and consequently maiming Speed, she suddenly found herself without a reason to do so.

Will, having stood and watched as Speed's spinning vortex of death almost snuffed out Warren without lifting a finger, finally burst into action. It happened so fast, suddenly -

- Will had his hand on Speed and -  
- Warren hit the ground, choking and -  
- Speed crashed into Lash and -  
- Will had his hands on Warren and -  
- Warren went flying through the air and -

The buzzer went off.

Her eyes darted to Will, force of habit driving her to insure her brother was safe and unharmed first. Will was fine. Better than fine really. He was triumphant; basking in the attention of the cheering audience. He was practically floating on air as he went to Warren's side to offer him a hand up. It had her wondering if he'd forgotten the fact that the person he was reaching out to had tried to set him on fire only a day ago. That probably was the case. It didn't matter in the end. Warren threw the "citizen" off and ignored Will's offered hand, getting to his feet on his own.

Everyone in the stands surged out of their seats and stormed the arena. As they crowded around Will, Warren quickly moved away to avoid being trampled by them. She watched him skirt the group of students until she lost sight of him disappearing into the changing room. For a moment, she wanted to chase him down and-

And what?

The look had meant nothing. Warren was fine. He was always fine.

There were bigger fish to fry, frankly.

Tenni stood and started heading down, taking the steps two at a time. Soon, she was in the arena, crossing it until she arrived at the pile of broken props and bodies. She stooped, reached out with her thumb and finger, and poked.

She got a groan.

"We had a deal," she said as she stared down, unmoved, at the unseemly heap that was Lash and Speed, "You lost."

"No deal!" Lash spat up at her, his vitriol dampened by how pathetic he looked, "It had to be you and your bro. Since you didn't fight, there was no deal."

"Oh please, you knew when you switched me out for Warren Peace that you weren't going to beat Will and me. And even with Warren Peace, Will beat you. You sure you wanna play that game with us?" She brought her hands up threateningly.

"No!" Speed quickly yelped, cutting off whatever Lash had been about to say.

"Good. So new deal then?" She smiled at them then, all teeth. "You lay off the freshman. If either of us catches you picking on one of them, or anyone really, we come after you. And trust me when I say that I won't worry about getting a detention if I have to make good on my end."

Speed certainly looked scared enough to accept her word. Lash seemed like he was still mutinous, but that was okay. A little part of her wanted him to put a foot out of line. Dare her to prove she'd do as she said. She'd enjoy it. This asshole had caused her and her brother and her friends pain and humiliation and she still wasn't completely satisfied. If he gave her reason, she could pay him back the way she really wanted.

For now, she could be a gracious winner.

"Here," she said, holding out both of her hands.

Lash and Speed both flinched at the motion and she let herself laugh at them. When they realized they weren't being hit or frozen, they opened their eyes to see what she was doing. Each hand palmed a perfect sphere of ice. The bullies stared at the ice with varying levels of confusion and suspicion.

"What's that for?" Lash finally barked.

"You both look like you're gonna bruise. Ice helps." That rebellious look returned to Lash, and she wanted to take back her peace offering. Or use it to break his face some more. Her stubbornness had her holding the ice out more insistently. "Take it, or else your faces will be uglier than they already are tomorrow."

"Why?" The taller boy sneered. "Is this a trick?"

"No," she replied, "I'm not cruel like you. I don't kick people when they're down. Even people like you." She got tired of holding the ice out to them and set it on the ground near them. "Take it or leave it, I don't care."

Standing as quickly as she did and turning on her heel to walk away might have seemed cool in her mind, but the vertigo she gave herself almost made her wobble sideways. By the grace of some deity, she managed to walk mostly straight for several paces. However, her intense focus on walking a straight line to the exit resulted in her crashing into something. Tenni could feel her face burning as her shoulder ached from the contact. Hopefully Lash and Speed hadn't just witnessed her walking into whatever it was she had walked into. She pulled her arm away from her shoulder with a hiss, an ineffective attempt to brace it when she'd made impact. It hurt enough that she slipped her hand under her shirt, placing it on her burn and willing cold to permeate it. Just as she started to feel like she could shake it off and continue on her way, she looked up.

It was starting to become stupid, the way they kept running into each other like this.

"Ah." Warren pinned her with his somewhat surprised stare as babbled. "Um. Sorry. About that."

And then she tried to inch away.

"Hey, wait."

She froze. Slowly, her gaze that had fallen to the floor as she had tried to flee crept up his form until it rested on his face. There was a myriad of emotions flashing there and she had to force herself to not waste even a second analyzing any of them.

"You alright?" he asked her haltingly, gesturing with an awkward shake of his hand at her shoulder.

"I'm fine!" He eyed her with definite disbelief and less definite concern. "Really. I'm fine. You don't need to worry about me."

_Not that you do anyway._

Tenni resumed her escape and almost growled in frustration when a hand grasped her wrist. She looked him in the eye again, annoyance beginning to overtake her anxiety.

"What?" she asked snappishly.

"I'm sorry. About that." He did the strange gesture thing at her shoulder again.

"Oh..." She let her hand fall away. "Not forgiven then."

He blinked.

"What?" And how it made her heart flutter to see the same startled look that he'd had on his face the first time she'd seen him. "But..."

"Just because you apologize doesn't mean I forgive you. You're still the idiot who tried to hurt my brother and burned my shoulder and that's not really okay." She shrugged carelessly with her good shoulder as her heart raced. "I mean, I'll get over it eventually. Maybe when my shoulder heals and I stop being irritated at you and you stop terrorizing Will, we can try this again, okay?"

He blinked at her again, his expression only more flabbergasted. "Okay?"

"Okay. So bye." She flailed her good arm at him in what was meant to be a wave goodbye and started walking away.

At least, she was pretty sure she was _walking_ away. As opposed to fleeing like a socially retarded coward.

"What was _that_?" Magenta, still in her PE clothes, demanded as she materialized at Tenni's side, almost jogging to match her pace on the way to the locker rooms.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Magenta, mercifully, let it go.

* * *

For a time.

"Come over to my place."

"Why?"

"Because we're friends?"

"Layla's also your friend. Ethan too."

"Yeah, but I want girl time only and Layla's busy with something today after school."

Tenni looked at her sideways with a frown.

"I call BS."

"I'm really not. Layla told me Will was treating her to dinner as an apology for the table thing." Her mouth twitched irritably at the mention of the event. She pointed at where Layla and Will were chatting exuberantly about Chinese food a couple rows up and across the way. "Since I'm down one plant girl, I'm going to have to conduct my interrogation of you solo. And Ethan's useless to me in those kinds of situations. He can't even play good cop right."

"Interrogation?" Tenni asked, immediately suspicious.

"Of course. I saw that Warren thing. Now, I don't pretend to understand the mind of the pyro psycho, but you..." She tsked to herself. "I know something's going on with you. And I'm going to find out. I could've used Layla's freakish ability to always catch you in a lie, but there are other ways to make you talk."

The aquakinetic swallowed nervously.

"You know, I'm starting to think you and Layla have more in common than I thought you two ever should."

"Hmm?" Magenta arched an eyebrow at her.

"You are both super nosy." She sighed. "I thought I'd finally caught a break when Layla started mooning over Will again."

"She's pretty obvious isn't she?" Magenta commented with a placid smile that almost seemed fond, "Your brother's not only an idiot, but a blind idiot." She reached over and pinched Tenni's arm. "Now stop trying to distract me with gossiping about Layla. Tonight's gonna be about you and Warren Peace and whether or not you've gone mad or if it's just the entire world."

"I can't get out of this can I?" Tenni moaned.

"Nope. I know you're free, so you have to hang out with me."

Before the bus even landed in Maxville, Magenta had already made all the necessary calls on her cell phone to obtain permission to have her over. How easily her parents said yes made her roll her eyes. They seemed like they were over the moon about her actually going out with friends who weren't just Will and Layla. The only conditions she'd been given were that she had to take it easy on her shoulder and that she'd be ready to be picked up and brought home by Josie at 8:30. Will and Layla had seemed a little confused and anxious to see her go off with Magenta and Ethan on her own, but she waved them off and followed after her other two friends with mild dread. The feeling only got stronger once Ethan split off from them leaving her alone with a smirking shifter girl.

Seeing the other girl's house surprised her a bit because she really hadn't expected... well, anything about where Magenta lived. Ethan and Magenta lived in a nice little suburban neighborhood, but somehow, nestled into that quaint area was an enormous, luxurious mansion. A mansion where Magenta lived. Tenni wanted to be impressed, really and truly because it was actually very beautiful and tastefully landscaped and furnished, but it freaked her out.

Too much space, too much distance.

Too easy to pretend no one else lived with you in a place like that.

It was a relief to get to Magenta's room, which was the only place she'd seen so far that felt like a person really lived in it. The room practically screamed Magenta, from the purple and black accents, to the gothic touches, to all of the posters and pictures plastered on her walls of favorite bands and friends. Tenni liked it. She went to take a sip of the glass of water the she had gotten when they had passed through the kitchen, and regretted it the minute the other girl opened her mouth.

"So tell me, what's the what? I get that Peace has kind of got the hot bad boy thing going on, but in the time we've known each other, you've never struck me as the good girl with a rebellious streak stereotype."

Though she didn't spit up her water, she came very close. Once she stopped choking, literally and figuratively, she leveled a mild glare at the other girl.

"Thanks for that. Really. What's got you convinced that I have a thing for Warren Peace?" Tenni demanded, her voice dripping sarcasm.

"_I _never said anything about you having a _thing _for Peace." She smirked at me before her expression gave way to consternation. "The point is, whatever it was that I saw happen between you guys was really... I don't even know how to describe that. He apologized to you. The son of Baron Battle apologized to you, the daughter of The Commander. What happened between yesterday and today that made him do that?"

"I don't know," Tenni admitted, feeling just as much confusion, "I don't know anything when it comes to that guy. I thought he hated me."

"Well, I think it's safe to say he probably hates your Dad, and doesn't like Will much either," Magenta commented thoughtfully, "But you? Maybe he doesn't hate you. It might just be me, but I'd rather die than ever apologize to someone I hate."

"Maybe..."

"Maybe he likes you." Tenni flushed, in anger or embarrassment or both she didn't know, as Magenta's serious face became wicked. "I mean, your brother is proof that guys do strange, stupid things when they like a girl. And I mean, we're assuming that Warren Peace is even a little like a normal guy."

"Warren Peace doesn't like me," Tenni insisted hotly, "And for that matter, I don't like him either."

"Yeah sure. Just like you don't stare at him as much as stares at you. And he does stare at you. A lot. When he's not glaring at Will."

"I really don't want to talk about this anymore." The aquakinetic glowered balefully. "Girl talk sucks."

"Okay, okay," Magenta surrendered, "Layla warned me about your low tolerance for these kinds of things. I got what I wanted anyways."

The glower deepened momentarily before giving way to exasperation.

"So what do we do now then?"

Standing, Magenta started moving around her room, picking up a couple things. At one point she stopped, a DVD case and a remote in her hand. She held the DVD out to me.

"Ever seen this before?" she asked, shaking the copy of the movie "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" in the Stronghold girl's face.

"No," Tenni answered, eyeing the movie critically, "It looks old."

"It's a classic," the shifter stated, crossing the room to stand in front of a cabinet that extended along the far wall.

Her tone brooked no argument. She threw open the doors of the cabinet and Tenni gaped. An entire entertainment system, with a _ginormous flat screen TV, _was fitted into the space within the cabinet. It shouldn't have been a surprise considering the house the girl lived in, but really. Magenta fired everything up and popped the DVD in. Once she finished that, she reclaimed her seat on the bed beside Tenni.

"Don't worry, you'll like it."

* * *

And she had to admit Magenta was right about that. She was still catching up after twelve years of zero exposure to pop culture. Magenta had been mumbling something about how "Whedon is God" and "make you watch the TV series" and "Angel!" It made Tenni a little relieved that her friend had chosen to ease her into all of this by showing her the nineties movie first. The story was enthralling. Many times, Tenni found herself relating to the title character. If only Buffy were real, she'd certainly understand her. She wanted to be normal just as bad as the girl who had had those powers and the job of slayer shoved on her.

Though, she could've done without Magenta's unsubtle hint at what she had dubbed "the Warren thing" whenever the shifter jabbed her elbow into Tenni's ribs every time Buffy and Pike had a "moment." Magenta was proving to be worse than even Layla at trying to make her act like a real girl with real girl feelings. A shiver ran down her spine as she remembered the month Layla was convinced she and Zach belonged together in middle school. Turnabout was fair play when she dropped her own comment about Zach's interest in Magenta despite her prickliness towards the walking glow stick. The smallest chink in the shifter's sarcastic armor, the tiniest flush at the mention of his interest in her, was a win in Tenni's book.

Magenta let Tenni take over her kitchen for a bit to make some pasta and steamed broccoli for just the two of them. It was simple enough to make and doing the cooking made the aquakinetic feel less bad about eating the other girl's food. There was no way she could wait until her mom brought her home to eat. Making the food meant that she deserved it in a sense, and that put any worries she had about mooching off of Magenta to rest. They were discussing when they would continue Tenni's "educational sessions" and whether to include Layla when the doorbell rang.

"Hey Mom," Tenni said, giving a mental sigh of relief when she saw Josie dressed in her casual clothing.

Normal clothes meant she had probably come in the car. That meant they weren't flying home. Tenni had never let on to Josie that she didn't like flying. She really hadn't wanted to disappoint Josie, so she'd never let her know.

"Hi sweetie. Time to go."

"Okay." She paused and turned to Magenta. "Thanks for having me over Magenta. I'm looking forward to watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series with you."

"No problem. I'll draw up a schedule for our marathon nights then."

"Yeah, you do that," I laughed, waving her goodbye.

She returned it as she closed the door behind me. I looked to Mom and immediately worried when I saw her eyes watering.

"Mom, what-?"

"Oh, my babies are all grown up and making friends!"

The sad thing was that I couldn't tell if she was making a joke or actually being serious. It really didn't matter, because she was shuffling me into the car and asking me to tell her about my day. She made sure to talk about how Will was in most of her classes now, focusing on how happy she was that she could see him more and completely avoiding the personality one-eighty he had when the popular group started acknowledging him. And she also tried to downplay Lash once again assaulting her and then Tenni goading him and Speed into a Save the Citizen match. Mom would probably lecture her for the rest of the car ride if she found out. She had told Will and Tenni time and again to never bite off more than they could chew in battle unless there was no other option.

However, it seemed that her Mom already knew. She explained that Will had come home and told her and Dad all about it during dinner. Something bothered Tenni about that comment. She couldn't quite put her finger on why, but it did. Mom was also being really coy about something else. It definitely had to do with Will. And dinner. When she managed to let the word dance slip, Tenni seized upon it.

"That's it!" the girl explained, causing Josie to jump.

"That's what?"

"The dance, he asked her to the dance!" Will must've invited Layla over to dinner instead of taking her to the Paper Lantern. Tenni shook her head. The boy's hatred for Chinese food struck again. Layla had probably been really disappointed. Then again, getting asked to the dance probably made up for it in spades. Layla had been waiting for years for Will to notice she had feelings for him. If Layla hadn't sworn her to secrecy, Tenni probably would've already told Will by now. It would've saved Layla the time Will had wasted being dense. "Finally. Can you tell me how it went Mom? And please tell me he didn't ask as _just friends._"

"Well, actually, she asked him." She smiled understandingly. "Not just as friends. And Will said yes."

Tenni's eyebrows shot to her hairline. Woah! Layla had been the one to make the first move? Awesome. The girl talked all the time about the problems with gender roles and yet she still expected Will to make the first move. It was about time she took matters into her own hands.

"Good for her!" Tenni said to herself, a smile of her own stretching her lips, "It's really about time."

"Oh." Josie took her eyes off the road to glance at her. "She's liked him for a while then?"

"Uh, yeah," the girl said, confusion and incredulity creeping up on her, "Yeah, she's liked him for a really long time. Forever, kind of. You mean you've never noticed before? Ever?"

"Tenni, I just met the girl. It's a little hard to get that kind of read on someone after one meeting." Her voice reflected how Tenni felt.

"That doesn't make sense," she mumbled to herself, before looking over at the woman, "Are we even talking about the same person? You know, Layla, lives on our street, has the most obvious crush on Will?"

"Oh!" Her mom exclaimed, "You thought I meant Layla. Oh honey, no. Oh, I completely forgot about Layla. The poor girl."

"You mean..." Tenni's mouth went dry. "You mean someone else asked Will to the dance?"

"Sweetheart," Josie uttered softly, her voice heavy with sympathy, "I'm sure you feel bad for Layla-"

"Who's the girl?" the girl asked, cutting her off.

She racked her brain for possibilities of girls that would ask Will to the dance and came up with nothing. For one fearful instant, she worried that it had just been some random girl from school who decided that now Will was cool, she was going to latch onto him. A fierce scowl twisted her lips. Tenni wasn't the confrontational type, but if it was some shallow popularity chaser, she was going to run the girl off. Will, her sweet and lovable brother, was an idiot when it came to girls. He just didn't know how to pick them at all. It was an utter mystery as to how he could read Tenni with such ease when the rest of the female population baffled him. And, well, she owed Layla this much at least.

"Her name's Gwen Grayson," Josie finally answered, slowly and measured, "She said she was a friend of yours and also Will's tutor. Your father and I liked her very much."

Well.

_Well._

This was apparently all her fault.

The desire to go into this situation all guns ablazin' died a swift and sad death as she deflated into her seat.

"Tenni?" She felt a hand on her arm but didn't acknowledge it. "Tenni?"

"Gwen huh?" she mumbled, "Yeah, she's nice."

"But she's not Layla?" her mom said, cutting straight to what she was really upset about.

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know. Maybe it was me just having wishful thinking. My brother and my best friend." She sighed. "For as long as I've been here, I've just had this idea that Will and Layla belong together. And, I like Gwen. I really like her. But it just feels wrong."

"It will be okay sweetie," the woman finally spoke, "Maybe those two are meant to be, maybe they aren't. Try giving Gwen a chance. That could work just like it may not. Just leave figuring it out up to Will and Layla."

She tried to convince herself that her mom was right, but was time really the solution? Could those two really work things out?

The burgeoning optimist in her had nothing to say to reassure her.

* * *

It would've been nice to have went straight to bed when they got home. Tenni didn't really want to see or talk to anyone else for the rest of the night. It had been a trying day already what with Will snubbing the others, the Save the Citizen Match, and then the conversation in the car. She really didn't want any more stuff to add to her emotional stress. Obviously, it wasn't her day, because Will pounced on her the minute she walked through the door, gushing about dinner with Gwen, and going to Homecoming with Gwen, and Gwen, Gwen, Gwen.

For the life of her, she couldn't make herself say anything nice. Not a single congratulations or even a, "great." It would be a lie if she had. More than that, it would be like a betrayal. All that she could do was be neutral and tell him she was tired and disappear up the stairs before he could stop her.

She didn't sleep very well through the night and came down for breakfast more than an hour early. Dad, the breakfast maker of the morning, had only just woken up and started making coffee for himself by then. He blinked owlishly at her, not understanding why she was awake so early and began peppering her with questions about her shoulder and what Will's match had been like the other day. Neither topic was something she felt comfortable talking about, but she tried to answer all of the questions as succinctly as possible. Steve Stronghold was such a successful real estate agent in part because he was charming, but mostly it was because he was persistent as all hell. If he wanted something, like getting you to buy a house or answer his questions, he was going to get what he wanted one way or another. Sometimes it was easier to get it over with.

Once the food was done - scrambled eggs, toast, and cut up strawberries - she put some egg between two pieces of toast and shoved a handful of strawberries into her mouth before darting upstairs. Thankfully, no one stopped her on the way up to her room. She was dressed and her teeth were brushed already, so all she had to do was grab her backpack and leave. Feeling a little crazy and desperate to not talk to anyone else in her family for the rest of the morning, she slung her backpack over her shoulder, dropped a scribbled note of explanation on her desk, and pulled her window open so she could slip out.

Holding her dribbling egg sandwich in one hand, she used the other to climb out into the tree near her window. It was child's play getting down. If she needed an extra step anywhere, she'd just materialize herself one out of water and ice. Soon enough, she was on the ground in the backyard and scurrying off. It took very little time to get where she wanted to, but she stopped herself short. Neither Layla nor her mom would much appreciate her knocking on their door with a scrambled chicken fetus sandwich in hand. She started taking slow bites, using the time to think.

Honestly, she hadn't really been thinking clearly when she dashed over here. The most pressing need had been to get away from Dad, Mom, and Will. It almost seemed that since high school had begun, most of her problems always stemmed from her family unintentionally finding ways to make her life harder. Resenting them for something they weren't doing on purpose may have been petty, but no one accused Tenni of being the most mature person. Frankly, as long as she was only that much more mature than Will, it really didn't matter to her how petty and childishly she behaved. Now, all she wanted was someone to dump this on.

But.

Layla was her usual go to person when she wanted to complain about Will, primarily, and Steve occasionally. It was why she was standing in front of the other girl's house this early in the morning after escaping through her second floor bedroom window. However, the fatal flaw of her plan was starting to dawn on her.

Layla was part of the problem as well.

Sometimes the drama that came with the Layla-Will thing got exhausting too. Layla was a smart girl, but Will seemed to always turn her into an idiot and Tenni was starting to get sick of it. Her stupid promise to not interfere always came back to bite her in the ass every time Layla came back to her crying about some dumb thing oblivious Will did. _Why does Will not notice me? Why does Will not understand how I feel? Why does Will not like me the way I like him? _

There were only so many times that Tenni could tell the girl to make the first move instead of waiting for him. She was just so tired of this bullshit. At least Gwen had been bold enough to ask Will herself.

Tenni blinked once and then twice at her own thoughts. And then surprised herself when the expected sting of her mind trying to reprimand her for her traitorous thoughts never came. It was strange. Sleeping on it had finally made it clear to her. She was done with it. Done with dealing with Will and Layla and their mess. Done with getting upset over insensitive things Dad said. They weren't her problem anymore. She could just- she could just tune out from now on.

After she did this one last thing. She owed the girl one last good talk before she took Mom's advice.

"Tenni?" She looked up and saw Layla there, looking a strange mix of dejected and hopeful. "What are you doing here?" There was a long pause as she hesitated over the next part. "Where's Will?"

"We're gonna walk to the bus stop together." The Stronghold girl managed a weak smile at the other girl. "Will will catch up."

They started off to the bus stop, neither talking to each other for a long length of sidewalk. Tenni counted the squares nervously as they went. Finally, she opened her mouth when it appeared obvious Layla wasn't going to first.

"I'm sorry Will ditched your dinner plans last night."

"No, it's okay, I-"

"No, it isn't," Tenni cut her off harshly, stunning Layla into a halt, "It isn't okay. You always do this Layla. You get upset because of something Will does and blame yourself and make excuses for him. And it's not okay. I don't like watching you do this to yourself. Can you just stop it? For once?"

"Tenni, I, why are you saying all of that to me?" the red haired girl asked, looking confused and hurt.

"Because you can't sit around waiting for Will to stop being oblivious anymore. Gwen Grayson asked him out to Homecoming," Tenni said in a rush, watching as Layla crumbled before her but forcing herself to for once not immediately go to comfort her, "So now you need to decide what you're going to do about that. Just do something, alright?"

"But what can I do?" Layla whispered pitifully, "She's Gwen Grayson."

"Think of something. Win him back, let him go and move on, whatever," the aquakinetic suggested, before her tone became more uncharacteristically forceful, "_Do_. _Something_."

"I-" She stopped, tears welling in her eyes and her lip pulled between her teeth. Then she nodded.

Tenni breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay." As a peace offering, she stuck her hand out to Layla. "Come on, let's get to the bus stop already."

The plant girl sniffled some, but without letting any tears slip took Tenni's hand and they went the rest of the way to the bus stop in quiet, contemplative peace. Will arrived only a couple minutes later, and Tenni was pleasantly surprised when Layla intercepted him from his intended sister-interrogation path. She moved away to give the two of them their privacy as they talked. With any hope, Layla was finally listening to her for once.

In fact, things were looking very good on the dazed and scandalized look on Will's face after he and Tenni broke off from the others at their lockers. It wasn't until they were standing just outside of Medulla's classroom that Will pulled her aside looking very serious. She huffed impatiently at him as he gathered his words.

"Tell me you didn't know," he demanded, his hand on the elbow of her good arm.

"Know what?" Tenni asked, rolling her eyes.

"Know about Warren Peace, my biggest enemy, asking Layla to Homecoming and Layla being crazy enough to say yes!" he exclaimed.

Her mouth fell open. It took her some flapping of her mouth until she got out an unintelligible, "What?"

Will sagged in relief as he took in the look on her face. "Guess she hadn't told you. Jeeze. It's totally crazy. She must be kidding. I don't even know what she was thinking saying something like that! Was she even thinking?"

He kept muttering but Tenni was still desperately trying to catch up with what Will had just said. Layla and... Warren? No she'd heard it wrong. Those two names didn't belong in the same conversation let alone in the same sentence.

"What?" was all she could say, feeling like a broken record.

"Crazy," Will said again, shaking his head and he steered her into the classroom.

The following classes passed in a blur. Tenni answered questions when she was asked and turned homework in when she needed to. Her mind really wasn't there. She was torn between completely writing off what Will had said and believing it because well... she knew what she had said this morning to the other girl. Maybe Layla was taking her seriously for once. Too seriously.

That was a terrifying thought.

Nightmarish even.

It turned into a waking nightmare the minute she walked into cafeteria with Will and Gwen (while purposefully ignoring Penny) and walked past table Layla, Magenta, Ethan, and Zach were sitting at. There was no mistaking the dark figure sharing space with them at the table. Her footsteps faltered, much like Will's in front of the table. Unlike her brother, however, she came to a complete halt. Her eyes darted back and forth between her friends' faces and the unexpected party.

Layla, guilty as sin and yet somehow defiant. Zach and Ethan, equally confused. Magenta, completely unruffled.

Warren Peace, looking for all the world as if he would happily greet the gaping maw of the Earth opening beneath him to swallow him whole.

And it seemed the word of the day was, "What?"

* * *

**Chapter Five: Stranger than Fiction **- End

* * *

Nana: Ok, this is ridiculous and I apologize for how late this is. (Frak) This chapter is a mess, but hopefully some of you will like it. I have a beta but I just wanted this posted and done with, so she hasn't looked at it. So sorry for its ugly Whedon obsessive tendencies shone through a bit too. Heh. I played around with my writing style here, so hopefully that was interesting. And the ending felt super rushed but eh-eugh.

_Things that are different than the original: _Tenni didn't really help Lash out. Holding out the ice was less a symbolic olive branch and more of a "ha ha, I'm throwing my win in your face, and threatening you!" And Magenta has the inside track on the Warren thing as opposed to Will. Both Tenni and Layla are also no longer being martyrs about their feelings and pushing back a little. Teenage girls are melodramatic and catty. But within reason in my stories. So Layla wake up call. Not really going to impact the plot line too much, but I liked it. Question though: should Tenni know about the fake relationship or should she be kept in the dark like in the original?

* * *

Next Installment:

Chapter Six: Three's a Crowd


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